Moving The
CHAINS As A Longtime Volunteer At Xavier, Phil Franklin ’73 Never Stopped Giving Back
is released, you can rest assured – Franklin will be there for the home games. Although he moved to New Ha mpsh i re si x ye a rs ago, Franklin has continued to make the drive to Middletown for every home game where he works the lines with his son Ryan, a 2003 graduate, and a group of close friends. Then once the game is complete, he will often stay the night at a local hotel and head back the next morning for New Hampshire. “I have enjoyed doing it for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons was it just helped the school,” said Franklin. A s t he X av i e r c om mu n it y continues to find new ways to come together during a pandemic, Franklin’s years of volunteering remain a model of commitment to the mission, and the relationships he forged at Xavier. Throug hout t he last four decades, Franklin has taken on a wide array of volunteer jobs and tasks for the school. He has been the president of the Alumni Association. He has served on the Board of Directors. He has helped lead several campaigns and ceremonies. And, of course,
F
ive times a year, Phil Franklin ’73 gets in his car and drives 275 miles to Xavier High School to join his friends on the Xavier football chain gang. Long drives, cold nights on the football field, hours spent helping the next generation of Xavier students. It is nothing new for Franklin. Si nc e he g r adu ate d 47 ye a r s ago, Franklin has never stopped finding ways to give back to the school that gave him so much. “There’s a seed that gets planted when you come here and that seed grew in me,” Franklin said. “Wa l k i ng i nto t h is bu i ld i ng , t h e r e ’s s o m e t h i n g s p e c i a l about it.” This past fall, those long road trips from his home i n Ba r t let t , N.H ., were post poned tempor a r i ly a s t h e s t a t e c ont i nu e d to deal with COVID-19, but the minute the next Xavier football schedule Phil at a Xavier Homecoming event.
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Intro Photo: Phil, with his son Ryan ’03. Left: Phil, with the Xavier football chain gang.
he has been on the chain gang for 17 years, a job he volunteered to do to help then Athletic Director Tony Jaskot ’69. However in the end, his reason for taking on each task is usually t he s a me – X av ier gave h i m much more than an education as a student. More than 50 years later, Franklin can still remember walking into school that first day as a student. “Coming in the door there was an expectation built into you of discipline,” Franklin said. “It was a special school because you were different. You came to school and you were taught by a great number of Brothers, you dressed differently, you wore a tie and a jacket …. There was a certain level of maturity that came out at Xavier.” At a young age, Franklin craved that type of focus. Despite Xavier still being a new school at the time, he was all in. “I wanted to be here,” Franklin said. “It was not a question of me arguing with my folks to go to a public school. I wanted to come here, and there was no question in my mind that this was going to work out.” It certainly did. At Xavier, along with all the lifelong friendships he made and the set of values he developed, Franklin also got his first date with his wife of 42 years, Sue.
Top Right: Phil, with his wife Sue (Mercy, Class of 1973), and their grandkids. Right: Kylemore Abbey, Ireland
“It was incredibly
meaningful for me to stand up as a representative of Xavier High School and as an alum and tell parents, ‘This is where you want your kids to go.’ ”
“It was a Xavier football game in 1972,” Franklin said. The couple, who were in the same first grade class together in Cromwell, had been friends their entire life, but it was not u nt i l X av ier a nd Merc y t hat they eventually started dating a f ter Sue asked Phi l to t he Junior R ing Dance. Now they have two grandchildren: Amelia and Gabriel.
