The cannibals may eat him, but they’ll never beat him, because he is Coach Allen and he’s 11 feet tall. Ungowa! Ungowa! Ungowa!

A great Thompson Falls Blue Hawk, player/coach/fan, Michael T. Allen passed away earlier this month, leaving a huge hole in the heart of Blue Hawk Nation as his loss is now being mourned.

If there were a Thompson Falls Blue Hawk football hall of fame, there would be many famous names on that list, including Mike’s.

Legends of the fall, great Hawk players like Don Heater, Mike Thurman, Craig McKenzie, Roger Willhite, Doug Gunderson, Tony Kazmierczak, Trae Thilmony, et.al., would all be on the list, but few have made an impact quite like Mike, first as a player, and then most significantly, as the Blue Hawk junior high coach, for what seems like forever, beginning in the 1990s and spanning into the late 2010s.

Mike was able to instill a love for the game of football, and a love for being a Blue Hawk, in his players that was borderline rabid, sometimes reaching a fevered pitch with another singing of the now-famous 11-feet-tall song his teams loved so much.

He made them feel like they were all part of something special, being members of the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk football team. He kept the game plans direct and to the point. He wanted his boys, as he always called them, to play good, physical defense and efficient, no-nonsense offense.

Most of all though, he wanted them to have fun, to experience the sheer joy of football, like he did when he was a kid growing up in Thompson Falls.

The wins and good feelings piled up over the years in junior high football as Mike got his message across, time after time, season after season. In fact, the final class of eager eighth graders that Mike coached in 2017 went on to win the Montana State 8-Man high school championship in 2021, and coach Allen proudly sat with his boys, including a grateful head coach Jared Koskela, who also once played for him by the way, for the team picture following that historic championship game in Thompson Falls.

“Coach Allen was the first face athletes saw when they signed up to play Thompson Falls junior high football,” Koskela said. "He taught the culture of Blue Hawk football to the kids, how to conduct yourself on and off the field. He taught me things I use in my coaching to this day, his legacy will live on.”

On a similar career path to Allen’s with Thompson Falls football, Koskela played junior high ball for Mike in the 2000s, and then assistant coached for him in 2011 upon returning to Thompson Falls (after playing football for and graduating from Montana Tech) before taking an assistant high school coaching job in 2012. Koskela was a key performer on playoff teams during his high school days and has now coached the Hawks for over a decade, including to that 8-Man title in 2021.

Another Allen disciple, Koskela’s assistant coach Jay Deal, also played for Coach Allen in the 2000s before going on to a college football career at Tech.

“For many of us, Coach Allen built our foundation in football, and none of us knew just how lucky we were that he was where it all began,” Deal said. “Coach had a gift for reaching athletes like few others can. He genuinely understood everyone he taught and inspired us all by believing in our potential even more than we did.

“We were boys with little direction in anything we did,” Deal added, “but he could hold our focus better than most.”

Deal took Coach Allen’s direction to heart as a youngster and appreciates it even more as an adult.

“He always seemed to know just when to adjust our lens to help us see what he saw,” Deal offered. “Looking back, it seems his goal was never to teach us that football was important, but rather that setting a goal and working hard to achieve it was what truly mattered, regardless of the outcome.”

Allen’s love affair with football is now a very large part of actual Thompson Falls Blue Hawk gridiron history itself, spanning some five-plus decades.

Back in the fall of 1970 as an eighth grader, Mike was an enthusiastic member of the first-ever Thompson Falls junior high football team himself, a real go-getter right from the start of it all, the inception of the program.

Little did Mike know, he would come back to guide that same junior high team he loved so much as their coach most of his adult life. And his players loved him right back, and still do to this day.

In high school, as a member of the Blue Hawk football team, Mike helped lead Thompson Falls High School to its first team State championship of any kind, the State B football crown in 1974, playing a tough, hard-to-tackle fullback on offense and being an immovable force on the line on defense.

In his most memorable performance as a player, as a junior, in below-freezing weather in Fairfield, Allen played a starring role in the 1973 State B playoffs, a 13-12 loss to the eventual champion Eagles, almost leading the Blue Hawks to victory on the frozen tundra of northern Montana.

It was during the Blue Hawks’s undefeated run to the 1974 State B title that assistant coach Don Prinkki first introduced Thompson Falls to the 11-feet-tall song, and Allen resurrected that song during his productive coaching career at TFJHS.

After his high school days and through the rest of his life, Mike was always the biggest Blue Hawk fan in any crowd, often wearing his high school letterman’s jacket when attending games, either as a coach or a fan.

As a fan, Allen and his buddy Doug Willhite, another famous Falls former player and fierce Blue Hawk fan, often showed up for the Hawks in the stands, even in far-off venues like Butte in recent years.

As when he coached, Mike always kept the commentary positive about his beloved Blue Hawks from the stands, wishing his boys the best, through thick and thin, always encouraging them.

Allen’s incredible gridiron work on and off the field in Thompson Falls will not soon be forgotten. Deal put it best.

“Growing up and playing sports, I rarely paused to reflect on who made my life’s opportunities and why they were possible,” he said. “Real perspective came later: becoming a father gave me a new respect for my parents, and becoming a coach made me realize just how much my own mentors did for me.

“To me, his legacy will not be a count of wins and losses, but rather the countless hearts and minds he steered on course for a better tomorrow,” Jay continued. “As I said before, Coach: you are now truly 11 feet tall and victorious! Ungowa…”

A true blue Blue Hawk right to the end, Michael T. Allen, you are now legend my friend.

    LEGENDARY BLUE HAWK junior high coach Michael T. Allen confers with his players during a timeout in Thompson Falls several years ago. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)