Looking Back: Sacred Heart’s Franks made impact on and of court

Sacred Heart High School’s storied basketball history includes nine CIAC state titles and numerous players who have earned All-State honors since the program was started in 1940. But one of the school’s best-ever performers nearly enrolled in another city high school his freshman year. Gary Franks — the AllState forward who helped lead the Hearts to back-to-back Naugatuck Valley League titles before starring at Yale University and later making history by becoming the irst black Republican Congressman in nearly 60 years — was set to start high school at Kennedy High in the fall of 1967 after graduating from Tinker Elementary School. “My parents and siblings wanted me to go to Taft Prep School (in Watertown). I interviewed there but was rejected,” says Franks. “So, it looked like I was going to Kennedy when my sister decided to have me meet with Father Blanchield (principal at Sacred Heart).” Having missed the admissions test earlier in the year, Franks’ nearly straight-A’s report card from Tinker impressed Blanchield enough to earn him a place in Sacred Heart’s freshman class. While the meeting paved the way for Franks to attend the city parochial school, he wasn’t unfamiliar with Sacred Heart and its basketball program. As an eighth-grader, he had followed the exploits of the 1966-67 Hearts team that captured city and NVL titles and then claimed the CIAC Class L crown, the irst state title for a Waterbury school in 14 years. “I was able to go to every Sacred Heart tournament game that year, thanks to my seventh-grade teacher who was a SHHS grad,” remembers Franks.“I listened to nearly every game on WATR during the regular season and I felt like I knew the entire team. “Well, I did know one player — Joel Goldson, who was a neighbor of mine when I lived near Orange Street. He was one of the many legends out of Walsh School, who dominated the City Grade School League back in the day (before middle schools were instituted, when each elementary school included kindergarten through eighth grades).” Franks would himself dominate city and NVL hoop contests — averaging over 20 points per game in his junior year and nearly 29 ppg in his inal season — and helped to lead Sacred Heart to three city championships and back-to-back Naugatuck Valley League titles during his scholastic career. “I had an outstanding high school coach — John Gilmore — who managed to get the best and most out of his teams,” says Franks. “We had a humble cockiness to each of our teams. And, we worked hard in each and every practice.” he 6-1 Franks earned second-team All-State status from the New Haven Register as a junior, before making irst team All-State as a senior in 1971. “I was ranked as the top senior in New England that year by Cage World (the basketball publication that covered the scholastic game in the Northeast),” he recalls. His decision to attend Yale University was inluenced by a desire to follow the path of one of his idols growing up. “Bill Bradley was my role model when I was in grade school; he was at Princeton and I wanted to go to an Ivy League college as well,” notes Franks. “I too never wanted to be known as just a basketball player or even the best high school player ever. I wanted to be the best scholarathlete ever,” adds Franks, whose senior-year honors relected that pursuit. He was recipient of both the Billy Finn Award (top senior player) and Doc McInerney Award (top scholar-athlete) in 1971, becoming the irst player to earn those two honors given to Waterbury seniors after each scholastic season.

Memnbers of the 1970-71 Class L All-State team included Tom Roy of South Windsor (kneeling), and standing, from left, Jerry Lade

man of Notre Dame of Fairield, Sacred Heart’s Gary Franks and Ed Fitzgerald of East Catholic.

It was an achievement that would have impressed Bill Bradley. And as fate would have it, many years later Sen. Bill Bradley and Congressman Gary Franks would serve in Congress together. But before that, Franks had a stellar career at Yale that earned him invitations to rookie camps by a few NBA teams after his senior season. Opting for a tryout with the New Orleans Jazz, “I was the last rookie cut that year — cut by Elgin Baylor,” says Franks, who was encouraged to play in the Continental Basketball Assocation. He instead opted for the business world, joining some Fortune 500 companies and eventually presiding over a real estate management irm. Franks served as a member of the Waterbury board of aldermen from 1986 to 1990, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. A Congressional pioneer, he was the irst Black Congressman from New England and the irst Republican voting member of Congressional Black Caucus. During his time in Washington (from 1991 to 1997), Congressman Franks brought a record amount of defense contracts to Connecticut, chaired the GOP efort on welfare reform, worked on civil rights legislation and fought to end racial gerrymandering. He served on the Armed Services, Energy and Commerce Committees. After his political career, he established his own public afairs irm, was a visiting professor at Georgetown University, University of Virginia, Hampton University, and wrote three political books. Franks’ achievements are indicative of a family full of high achievers. Coming from humble beginnings, he is one of six children raised by diligent, loving parents, with each succeeding “through hard work and the grace of God,” he notes. “hree of my siblings hold doctorate degrees, one brother became a Colonel in the Army, and another brother was a grade school teacher and coach,” adds Franks, who has certainly fulilled his early ambitions to succeed on and of the basketball court.