Lee Allen was one of only four wrestlers to represent the United States at the Olympics in both freestyle and Greco-Roman, competing in freestyle in 1956 and finishing eighth in Greco-Roman in 1960. He was a member of the first U.S. team to compete in the World Championships (1961) where he placed sixth in freestyle.

Allen also won two national AAU championships and two U.S. National titles in Greco-Roman; a U.S. National title in freestyle; and three U.S. Army European championships while a member of the armed services.

He was a four-time undefeated state champion for Sandy High School in Sandy, Oregon. He then competed for two years at Portland State from 1952-54 and the University of Oregon in 1956-57. In the 1957 NCAA Wrestling Championships, he entered as the second seed at 130 pounds and placed fifth.

He was the head coach of the 1980 Olympic Greco-Roman team, which did not compete because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow games, and was an assistant coach in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. He was head coach of four U.S. Greco-Roman teams at the World Championships in 1973, 1977, 1978 and 1979.

Allen and his wife, Joan Fulp, were instrumental in the development and growth of women’s wrestling in California and the United States. He led the men’s wrestling program at Skyline College in California for 32 years while incorporating a women’s program. His San Francisco Peninsula Grapplers women's team won the Senior National championships in 1997 and 1999.

He was head coach of the women’s wrestling team at Menlo College in California from 2001 to 2010 where he coached both his exceptional daughters, Sara Fulp-Allen Bahoura and Katherine Fulp-Allen Shai.

Allen received the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award from the Oregon Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2011 and from the California Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2013. He is a member of the AAU, San Mateo County, Skyline College, Portland State University and California Wrestling halls of fame.

For his lifetime dedication to the sport he so dearly loved, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is honored to induct posthumously the legendary Lee Allen as a Distinguished Member.