A longtime driver for Sealtest Dairy, Mr. Allen was a founder and president of Our Lady of Peace Athletic Association in the 1960s, where he coached grade-school baseball and basketball. He later coached basketball for the community-based Ridley Interboro Junior ABA.
"Coaching was his passion," said his daughter Kathleen M. Schembs. He was also a fan of Villanova basketball - he had attended college there for one year - and of Notre Dame football and the Phillies.
On the night before her father died, Schembs said, he began struggling with his oxygen mask, trying to speak. The family removed it, thinking he had some urgent message to relate, and discovered "he wanted to know if the Phillies won."
Mr. Allen died the next day, but when Pedro Feliz hit a grand slam several hours later to put the Phils one game away from the division championship, "We all laughed and said, 'Thanks, Dad,' " Schembs said.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Allen grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from South Philadelphia Catholic High School.
He drove for Sealtest from about 1950 until he retired in 1990, and he was a courier for the Franklin Mint until 2004.
He was married for nearly 56 years to Elizabeth Jean Mossor Allen, who died in 2005.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Allen is survived by sons Michael and Timothy; daughter Jeanne Unangst; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A Memorial Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today at Our Lady of Peace Church, 208 Milmont Ave., Milmont Park.
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