Allan “Red” Walla, who died June 24 at age 88, always kept his eye on the ball, enjoying a lifetime as an athlete and a coach, and basking briefly as a local celebrity after batting over .700 in the wildly popular Denver fast-pitch softball league.
Nicknamed “Red” for the red sweater he wore throughout boyhood, and the red wagon that he dragged everywhere, Walla was a natural athlete. Often he pulled home a wagonload of the marbles he collected from playing with other boys, eventually amassing such a collection that parents forbade their children to shoot marbles against Red Walla. At 12, he won a Denver marble-shooting tournament.
He lettered in three sports at East High School and helped win the Denver district baseball championship in 1936 – the year Walla graduated. The Cleveland Indians contracted him to play on a farm team that summer, but Walla’s notions of going pro evaporated after the team played in several Southern states.
In one town, he saw six black people lynched. Walla never forgot the local who dismissed the whole thing as pest control.
“It warped him on the South,” said his son, John Walla.
“It’s one reason he didn’t go back to trying to play pro ball. Most of the minor-league teams were strong in the South, and he wouldn’t go back.”
In the fall, he began studying at what is now the University of Northern Colorado. Naturally, he joined the college basketball, baseball and football teams. His skill thrived under celebrated coach Pete Butler. He played on the baseball and basketball conference all-star teams seven times. During his college baseball career, his batting average was .306.
In the summers, companies hired Walla to play for the teams they sponsored in fast-pitch softball leagues. Playing on a team carried the perk of a job at the sponsoring company, often for twice the hourly wage paid to college students.
Up to 10,000 fans attended each game, and Walla earned a retinue of admirers. He became a local celebrity the summer when his batting average rose above .700.
“I remember as a kid, it didn’t matter where we went. People knew him,” John Walla said.
“I asked my dad how come people knew him. But he was kind of quiet about stuff like that.”
After serving as a gunnery officer in World War II, Walla took up golf. Except for a brief interval as a businessman, he enjoyed a career as a coach and teacher at Limon High School, West High School and Lake Junior High, and schools in Covina, Calif., where he worked before retiring in Denver in 1979.
A memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. today at Willis Case Golf Course, 4999 Vrain St.
Survivors include sons John Walla of Aspen and Daniel Walla of Seattle; daughter Karen Russ of Denver; and four grandchildren. His wife, Dorothy Thompson Walla, died in 1988.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
