A career of teaching school and coaching football that covered all or parts of five decades comes to a close when Randy Franks retires, today.
With an overall coaching record of 166-67, Randy is best known for his coaching accomplishments at Tigrett, where he compiled a record of 120-46.
WNWS.COM visited with Randy, a physical education instructor at North Parkway Middle School for a Question & Answer session.
Question: You began coaching at Milan High School in 1978, but some people do not realize you left the game of football and went into sales. What influenced your decision to return to teaching and coaching?
Answer: I coached at Milan High School for two years, and had gotten an opportunity to go into sales during my second year. I got out of coaching/teaching for five years. I didn’t like traveling all the time and missed coaching, so I returned in 1985 at Tigrett as the head football coach, which was a junior high school, at the time.
Q: During your time at Tigrett, you coached several students who went on to play at the college and professional level. We know you don’t want to leave anyone out, but can you name a few who people might remember?
A: I have been extremely fortunate to have had quite a few good athletes play for me. Some of those people are Al Wilson, who played at Tennessee during their national championship year and was drafted and played for the Denver Broncos.
Artis Hicks, played and started for Memphis for four years, and later played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, and Miami Dolphins.
Both of these guys had outstanding careers in the NFL.
Anthony Hicks, played at Middle Tennessee, was with the San Diego Chargers, and played in the NFL Europe for a few years.
Ryan Scott, played at Memphis and also played in the Arena Football League.
Bo Hardegree, who played at Tennessee, has been in coaching in the college ranks and NFL with Denver, Chicago, and now the Miami Dolphins.
There were also many more guys that played college football that played for me such as, Cody Ridgeway, Adam November, Bill Hardegree, Eric Charles, Reggie Ward, Alex Long, Reggie Bush, Courtney Bush, Markel Owens, my son Jeremy, and many others that I can’t currently recall, who played in the NCAA and NAIA divisions. I hate leaving anybody out, and I’m sure I have, but after 35 years, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to have a lot of young men play for me.
Q: Coaching for you was more than X’s and O’s. Can you describe the feeling you have because of the success a number of your players enjoyed?
A: You need to know one thing – these people I have mentioned, and even the ones that I haven’t, earned their success through their own hard work and determination. My only part in their success, was to keep them interested in the game, to teach them to work hard toward their goals, to learn to have fun, and try to teach them to make good decisions, to be good examples for others and grow up to be good citizens of the community.
I also had the opportunity to work with some great assistant coaches and make some lifelong friends, and the same can be said with the coaches that I competed against each year.
Q: An era ended when Tigrett closed? What were your thoughts when you learned the fate of the school.
A: Having been there 31 years, it really made me sick. It made ALL the Tigrett staff sick and upset. We had a really tight family/faculty that loved our school, our kids, and were proud of where we worked. It just shocked everyone in the building.
There were an awful lot of good memories that I’ll never forget. After 31 years in that building, my car still seems to want to go there in the mornings. There has been at least once or twice that I was on the way to school early in the morning and I forgot to turn onto North Parkway, my current school, and I went straight as to going to Tigrett. But I did get turned around in time.
Q: What are your plans for retirement?
A: I don’t plan to just sit around and do nothing. I have things I need to do around my house, plus my wife already has her own list started for me (laughing). We enjoy going places and doing things together, so I am looking forward to doing that. Maybe even traveling a little more and possibly playing golf again.
And hopefully, one day finding a cabin in the Smoky Mountains and moving up there. I want to spend time with my family, relax, and enjoy life.
(PHOTO: Randy Franks is pictured at North Parkway Middle School)
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