USMS Pool All American Honors – 8 years (33 individual)
USMS Top Ten Achievements – 73 individual
Fred Allen, a native of Nottingham, England was educated in New York’s Stuyvesant High School and at Springfield College (class of 1924). He received a master’s degree in education from Boston University in 1936. A World War I Army veteran, Allen also was a physical education teacher in the Providence public school system for over 40 years, retiring in 1968. Although Fred was active in sports and physical conditioning all his life, it was not until 1977 at the age of 78 that his competitive swimming career began.
He was “horsed” into swimming Masters by his son Monroe, a NEM member. There was a mini-meet in Seekonk and Monroe suggested that Fred bring his suit with him, so that he could swim between heats. When he arrived at the pool, he was advised “the first event is a 200-yard handicap race and you’re in it.” Fred had not swum that far in at least 15 years, but he started (crawl) and finished (backstroke). When he learned that his time would have placed him in the Top 10 nationally in his age group, that, as Fred put it, “really fired up the furnace.”
At the 1980 Short Course National meet in Fort Lauderdale, Fred who was over the age of 80, was summoned from the bleachers to take the place of a missing teammate in the men’s 35+ freestyle relay already in progress. The relay team won no medals, but Fred won the hearts of his teammates.
“Well, I finished, didn’t I?” The quotation was characteristic of Fred’s attitude towards competitive swimming. He liked the training and the good physical condition that it brought. Although he didn’t object to the medals, the attention, and the records (he held several age-group long course world records at the time of his death at the age of 87 in 1986), he never became obsessed with winning, or thought that he was a phenomenally good swimmer, or lost his ability to chuckle at himself. Once when asked why he participated in the Masters program, he said, “first, I was ‘horsed’ into it. Second, I like it for the health of it. I enjoy trying out new techniques in the art of swimming the different strokes. And third, where could you find a better group of people to share your experience with?”