Robert Nate Allen

Robert Nathan Allen, age 75, known commonly to the world as Nate Allen, died Dec. 3, 2025, at his home in Fayetteville. He spent his 52-year professional career in Fayetteville where he covered Arkansas Razorback athletics for several media outlets over the decades and became widely known as a go-to source for information about the Hogs' current state and historical aspects.

He was born Oct. 16, 1950, in Dubuque, Iowa, the son of Victor and Betty Allen of Galena, Ill., where his father was a mining industry executive. At age 7 his family moved to Englewood, N.J., when his father's career took him to New York. His sportswriting career began in Englewood upon being named sports editor of the Second Grade Times at Elizabeth Morrow School. During his first year in New Jersey he saw the New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers at the last game the two teams played at Brooklyn's Ebbetts Field before both teams moved to California. (Willie Mays homered for the Giants; Sandy Koufax was a relief pitcher for the Dodgers.)

His family moved to his parents' hometown of Joplin, Mo., in 1968 where Allen spent his senior year of high school. A year later he enrolled at the University of Missouri to major in journalism. At MU he was a sports reporter and later sports director at student radio station KCCS where he announced play-by-play of Missouri Tiger baseball games in addition to working for the university-owned broadcast stations and daily newspaper.

He spent the summer of 1972 as an intern on the sports desk of the Joplin Globe. Upon graduation from MU in 1973, Allen moved to Fayetteville where he began work at The Springdale News as the newspaper's beat reporter covering University of Arkansas athletics. A year later while working for the News he also was a freelance reporter covering the Razorbacks for the Arkansas Democrat. His work for the Democrat attracted the attention of Arkansas Gazette sports editor Orville Henry, who offered Allen a job as the newspaper's Fayetteville reporter on the Razorback beat.

Allen covered the Razorbacks for the Gazette's statewide audience from 1976 to 1990 with daily reports and frequent columns on several sports from home and on the road, including football bowl games, March Madness basketball tournaments and national championship track meets among others. While covering baseball for the Gazette he resumed his play-by-play announcing skills as the color analyst on Razorback radio broadcasts on Fayetteville station KNWA-FM in the 1980s.

Allen worked for the Gazette during the peak of the Little Rock newspaper war with the Democrat. By 1990 Allen could see that it was time to make a move and was hired as the Donrey Media Group's chief Razorback sports correspondent for its newspapers around Arkansas, including The Morning News that had previously been The Springdale News where Allen got his start. (It was a prescient move on Allen's part as the Gazette closed a little more than a year later.) Allen's move prompted a phone call from Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles to the Morning News editor to tell him that Donrey had made good hire.

By 2001 Allen struck out on his own the establish the Nate Allen Sports Service, which offered daily reports and columns about Razorback athletics to several newspapers around the state. He also branched out into books. He was the author of Tales from Hog Heaven in 2002, More Tales from Hog Heaven in 2004 and Amazing Tales from Hog Heaven in 2013. With Dudley Dawson he co-authored 1994 National Champions: University of Arkansas Razorbacks about the Hog basketball team. Many readers who obtained autographed copies of Allen's books may for the first time have experienced the bewilderment of Allen's usually indecipherable handwriting.

The Nate Allen Sports Service included the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as a significant client and showcase for Allen's columns in recent years. His final column in the newspaper was published the day before his death and had been submitted to editors little more than a day before publication as Allen was in the final stages of illness.

Since 2017 he had battled oral cancer and had been through multiple surgeries and procedures that left him unable to speak in an understandable manner. He remained on the job most of the time since then by emailing questions to sources, attending news conferences and asking others to forward questions. He continued to cover games in person when possible.

His readers were largely unaware of his condition. His final column ended with an expression of regret that he had been unable to attend the Nov. 29 Missouri-Arkansas football game due to illness. In that column he noted the tribute in the press box that day paid to the late Bob Holt, the Razorback beat reporter for the Democrat and then the Democrat-Gazette since 1982 who died a year ago and at different times was Allen's competitor and colleague. A similar tribute was paid to Allen at the press table of the Louisville-Arkansas basketball game on the day of his passing.

He is survived by his son David Allen of Fayetteville; daughter Kym Williams and her husband Odie; grandchildren CJ, Jordan, Odie and Olivia, all of Fayetteville; sister Vicki Allen and her husband Mannie Garcia of Alton, Ill., and a sister-in-law, Terry Allen of San Fransico, CA. He was predeceased by his wife of 37 years, Nancy Allen, who died in November 2024, and older brothers Mitchell Gregg Allen and Thomas Joseph Allen.

Memorial service will be 2:00 pm Monday December 15, 2025 at Moore's Chapel in Fayetteville.

To place an online tribute, please visit www.bernafuneralhomes.com