A memorial service for former College of San Mateo wrestling coach Lee Allen will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Community Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay.
Allen, 77, died on Monday of congestive heart failure.
The two-time Olympian began his college coaching career at CSM in 1964, moving to Skyline College in 1969 to begin the program at CSM’s sister campus. His final CSM team (1968-69) won the North Section state qualifying tournament.
Allen held the unique distinction of competing in the Olympic Games in both freestyle (1956) and Greco-Roman (1960) wrestling and was on the first U.S. team to compete at the World Championships, placing sixth in the 136.5-pound freestyle division in 1961 in Yokohama, Japan, before becoming CSM's coach.
Allen was also the head coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman Team (which did not compete due to the U.S. boycott of the Moscow event). He was also head coach of four U.S. World Championship Greco-Roman teams.
Following his retirement from more than three decades of community college coaching, Allen became the first women’s wrestling coach at Menlo College where he coached both of his daughters to distinguished careers. Sara and Katherine Fulp-Allen each won a pair of national titles at Menlo. Both have been candidates for U.S. Olympic teams and are resident athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. (Sara has won a U.S. Senior Open national title and Katherine was a World University Games champion.)
Allen is also survived by his wife Joan, a physical education teacher at El Granada Elementary School.
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