BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Terry Franklin

In honor of Black History Month, Falcon Athletics is celebrating those who paved the way. Throughout February, UWRFSports.com will share short interviews with African-American alumni. In these interviews, former student-athletes reflect on their time at the UW-River Falls, provide advice to current Falcons and share what Black History Month means to them personally.

Class of 1977 – Terry Franklin
Sport: Football
Years: 1972-1975
Grad Year:  May 1977
Hometown: Chicago, IL  
Major:  Sociology
Occupation: Retired, Andersen Windows
 
What occupies your time now?
I retired from Andersen Windows in 2015 after 38 years of service. Now my wife and I enjoy spending our time babysitting our granddaughter and being with our family. It's great that our daughter moved back to River Falls because we get to spend time with our granddaughter and watch her grow up. That's special and I don't want to miss that. 
 
How did your time as a student-athlete prepare you for life after college and athletics? 
All the life lessons and education I received in college gave me a better shot than some of my friends that went straight to work after high school. I knew that because of my education I had options and I was proud of that. College prepared me for life and how to treat people. 
 
What's one piece of advice you would share with current student-athletes?
Stay with it, work through it and persevere.  There were a lot of students who started school with me and seemed like they were doing great, and then all of a sudden they were packing up and leaving. Once you give up on college, it's hard to go somewhere else and start all over. Once you stop it's a lot harder to achieve that degree by some other means. My advice is to stick to it, stay in school, because the reward is worth it. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. I was the first in my family to get a degree, and I couldn't believe it! 
 
What is your favorite memory from your time at UW-River Falls?  
It would have to be something with my team and Coach Farley. When things were all done, there was a group of us that was always together. We graduated, stayed in the area and we still get together, we often wonder what we have done without Coach Farley. He was a monumental person in our lives. Not too long ago we met for breakfast at Junior's before the game and Coach Farley was there. I had to hold back from crying when I went to tell him "I just want to thank you for everything you've done for us," and he says, "yeah, you guys really helped me out, and if you guys…" and I had to jump in and say "no, no, no, I'm thanking YOU for what you did for us!" 

I was glad I got to tell him that had it not been for him, I don't know if we would have stayed here. His program was awesome! The way he cared about the players each individually. We were blessed to have him and all the things he did for us. Football, basketball, whatever it is, it's a different classroom, and Mike Farley was a hell of a teacher. 

What are you grateful for?  
My family more than anything. I look back on how I was blessed because we didn't have a lot. When I was ten we moved to Chicago and I knew everybody there. It was a tight knit community, our neighbors would babysit for my mom while she was taking classes or working. Because of how they raised me I didn't get caught up with drugs and into trouble.  I don't know what I would have done without my parents. I see a lot of kids growing up without one or the other of their parents, and they get into trouble.
 
What does Black History Month mean to you? 
Black History Month is a time to celebrate all of the achievements that my race and has been through to make it to this point. I remember growing up, my family had just came from the south, in the early 30s a lot of African Americans, that were former slaves, were trying to make it North with their families looking for industrialized jobs. 

As a kid  growing up in the 60s there were a lot of struggles, but we were fortunate to have role models such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesse Jackson who were fighting for our civil rights. To see those guys back then was something else, today, it seems we don't need that like we did back then.  It's something to see the progressions that were made by our predecessors that made life easier for us. They made it easier for us to go to college, growing up I didn't know many Blacks that went to college. I think a lot of things they were marching for back then helped us get to where we are now.

Check out Black History Month Central for more alumni features.