Editing Dick Allen (section)

==Early life==
Allen was born in [[Wampum, Pennsylvania]], one of nine children of Era and Coy Allen, a truck driver. After his parents divorced, he was mainly raised by his mother who worked as a [[Housekeeper (domestic worker)|housekeeper]] to support her children. Allen grew up in [[Chewton, Pennsylvania]], a small village just outside Wampum.<ref name=sabr-allen>{{cite web |title=Dick Allen (SABR BioProject) |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Dick-Allen |website=Society for American Baseball Research}}</ref>

He attended Wampum High School where, along with his brothers [[Hank Allen|Hank]] and [[Ron Allen (baseball)|Ron]], he was a star basketball player at the school; All three brothers earned All-State honors. In the 1958–60 season, Allen captained the basketball team, leading them to the state championship and earning [[All-American]] honors.<ref name=sabr-allen/>

Despite their prowess in basketball, the brothers chose to priortize baseball as, at the time, baseball paid better and they wanted to buy their mother a new house. Hank became an outfielder for three teams in the [[American League]] while Ron briefly played first base for the [[1972 St. Louis Cardinals season|1972 St. Louis Cardinals]]. Dick was scouted by Phillies scout [[Jack Ogden]] who convinced the team to sign Allen in 1960 for a $70,000 bonus.<ref name=sabr-allen/>