Franklin one of five to join Sumter Sports HOF

FRANKLIN

By DENNIS BRUNSON
Item Sports Editor
dennisb@theitem.com

Kenny Franklin can say without a doubt that he received some wise advice when he was a teenager growing up in Sumter.

While playing football at Alice Drive Middle School in the eighth grade, he had one of his coaches suggest that he go out for the track and field team. Franklin didn’t like the idea, but his mother, Ella Jean Vaughn, made him try the sport.

“My mother said, ‘You’re going to run, and we’ll see how it goes,’ “ Franklin said.

Three 4A event state titles, seven All-American honors and three All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors later, going the track and field route was definitely the right choice for Franklin.

Franklin, who was a star at Sumter High School and then at Clemson University, will be one of five people inducted into the Sumter Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club of Sumter at 26 Council Street.

“It’s a really big honor to be chosen for this,” Franklin said. “This is something I was not expecting. I started looking up the people who were in this and are a part of this, and this is a real big honor.”

Franklin, who lives Bridgeport, Conn., and is an asstistant coach with the Sacred Heart University track program, won individual state titles in the long jump and triple jump at Sumter High School and was a part of a 4x400-meter relay championship team as well. SHS won the state title in 1995, when Franklin was a senior, and was the state runner-up his junior season.

Franklin, who credited former SHS coaches Rut Dingle, Carl Baker and the late Steve Robinson for his success, said he didn’t really consider what he was doing individually.

“I was just trying to do the best I could for my school and my team,” Franklin said. “I was trying to win and get as many points for the team as I could. I practiced hard so I could do what I was supposed to do. I was trying to win for myself and my teammates.”

Even with his high school success, Franklin admits he was surprised when he ended up at Clemson and had the success he had.

“I was just hoping to get in a Division I school and run track,” he said. “I knew we weren’t going to be able to afford college, so I focused on sports and academics, always making sure I had that 3.0 (grade-point average).”

Franklin said he had to make the usual adjustments from high school to college, but once he did, everything fell into place at Clemson. He earned All-American honors as part of the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams and in the 200-meter dash. He was part of the 1999 NCAA Indoor Track Championships 4x400 relay team.

Franklin helped lead Clemson to three ACC indoor titles and two outdoor titles.



Reach Sports Editor Dennis Brunson at dennisb@theitem.com or (803) 774-1241.