M Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1976
Allyn McKeen is the University of Memphis’ lone induction into the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame. McKeen, who was born in Fulton, Kentucky, but moved to Memphis at an early age, where he became a star player at Central High School. He signed with the University of Tennessee in 1924 and played through the 1928 season. He scored Tennessee’s first touchdown under head coach General Bob Neyland and tallied 27 kicking points as a senior. McKeen moved back to Memphis in 1929 to practice law but could not get football out of his blood. He volunteered in the afternoons to help Zach Curlin coach the 1929 Memphis football team and was instrumental in the Tigers undefeated, 8-0-2, record. McKeen continued to assist Curlin until the 1935 season when returned to his law practice on a full-time basis. When Curlin stepped down as the football coach after the 1936 campaign, the search committee recommended McKeen, who immediately hired Cecil C. Humphreys from Tennessee Junior College in Martin. His ‘37 squad posted a 3-6 record, setting the stage for the Tigers’ only undefeated and untied season in school history. McKeen left Memphis in 1939 to become the head coach at Mississippi State University and remained as the Bulldog’s head coach for nine seasons. His 1940 team went undefeated and won the Orange Bowl Championship and in 1941 he led the Bulldogs to the SEC title. McKeen was named the SEC Coach of the Year in 1940. He died in 1968.Â
