Ronald Franklin (February 2, 1942January 18, 2022) was an American sportscaster. He was employed by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

from 1987 to 2011. He was fired by ESPN on January 4, 2011, after making sexist comments to a colleague.Ron Franklin Fired: ESPN Axes Announcer After Sexist Comments: Report
Huffington Post, January 4, 2011. Franklin brought a wrongful termination suit against his former employer, alleging breach of contract by ESPN. The parties settled out of court.

Early life and career

Franklin grew up in Hazelhurst, Mississippi. His mother allowed him to play sports in school as long as he also agreed to take voice lessons. His family moved to

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Ox ...

when he was 14. He suffered a head injury in high school that resulted in the formation of a blood clot that ended his football career and made him ineligible for the military. Around the same time he found work as a teen

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...

, which got him interested in combining his interests in broadcasting and sports.Cary Estes
MSM Feature – Ron Franklin: Local Vocal
''Mississippi Sports Magazine'', February 23, 2010, Accessed January 5, 2011. While a student at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

, Franklin worked the wake-up shift at a radio station, attended classes during the day, and then returned to the station in the evening to work on commercials. For further vocal training, he performed in college theater. He was an alumni member of

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity. Prior to ESPN, he was basketball and football play-by-play commentator for the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

from 1983 to 1988. He was the

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

voice of the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

from 1971 to 1982. He also worked as sports director for four different local news stations: KSWS-TV (now

KOBR KOBR (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Roswell, New Mexico, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is a satellite of Albuquerque-based KOB (channel 4) which is owned by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting. KOBR's trans ...

) in

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the seat of, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the Roswell micropolitan area. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 48,422, making it the fifth-largest city ...

in 1965, KVOO-TV (now

KJRH-TV KJRH-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Okmulgee-licensed Ion Television outlet KTPX-TV (channel 44). KJRH-TV's studios are located o ...

) in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

from 1967 to 1971, and in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

with

KHOU-TV KHOU (channel 11) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe-licensed Quest station KTBU (channel 55). Both stations share studios on Westheimer Road near Upto ...

from 1971 to 1980, then with

KPRC-TV KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (I-69/US 59) in the Southwest Management District (formerly Greater ...

from 1980 to 1987.

ESPN

While at ESPN, he primarily worked as a

commentator for ESPN's coverage of

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

and

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

. From 1987 to 2005, he anchored ''

ESPN College Football Primetime ''ESPN College Football Primetime'' may refer to one of several shows produced by ESPN: *''ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime'' is the Saturday night game on ESPN. *'' ESPN2 College Football Saturday Primetime'' is the Saturday night game on E ...

'' primarily with

Mike Gottfried Mike Gottfried (born December 17, 1944) is a sportscaster and former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Murray State University (1978–1980), the University of Cincinnati (1981–1982), the University of ...

. In 2006, he moved to ESPN2 College Football Primetime with

Ed Cunningham Ed Cunningham (born August 17, 1969) is an American sports announcer, film producer, and former professional American football player. Following his career in the National Football League, Cunningham worked as an commentator for different medi ...

. In 2007, that crew moved to

ESPN on ABC ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports from 1961 to 2006) is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains ...

to call mainly

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

games. In

, he was the primary ESPN play-by-play man with Fran Fraschilla for Big 12 games. The duo also called the NIT Championship. He also called the tennis

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

and the U.S. Olympic Festival, He hosted in some years the

Miss Texas USA The Miss Texas USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Texas in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. This pageant is part of the Miss USA Organization, owned by Texas native C ...

Pageants. He signed a contract extension with

in 2006.

Holly Rowe incident

On October 1, 2005, during a game between Notre Dame and

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mo ...

that Franklin was calling, sideline reporter

Holly Rowe Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster currently working for the sports television network ESPN. Rowe is best known as a sideline reporter for college football games which are telecast on ESPN. Rowe made Utah Jazz team ...

praised Purdue defensive coordinator

Brock Spack Brock D. Spack (born January 5, 1962) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Illinois State University, position he has held since December 2008. Previously, he was the defensive coordinator at Purdue University under Jo ...

for using all three timeouts on defense despite trailing by four touchdowns late in the game. "If the coaches are giving up," Rowe added, "What does that say to the players?" Franklin responded, "Holly, it's not giving up. It's 49–21, sweetheart." In response to that, Mo Davenport, senior coordinating producer for college football said, "It was an inappropriate comment, and we've communicated that to Ron. There's never a reason to say something so mean-spirited. Ron apologized. We dealt with it internally."

Jeannine Edwards incident

During a production meeting prior to ESPN's telecast of the

Chick-fil-A Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially ref ...

on December 31, 2010, Franklin addressed sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards in a condescending tone as "sweet baby"; when she objected, Franklin called her an " asshole". The incident was reported to ESPN by another colleague, and ESPN tried to pull Franklin from the Chick Fil-A coverage that night but was unable; instead, Franklin was removed from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN ...

's coverage of the

2011 Fiesta Bowl The 2011 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the Connecticut Huskies (UConn), co-champions of the Big East Conference, and the Oklahoma Sooners, champions of the Big 12 Conference, at University of Phoenix Stad ...

the following day.Jeannine Edwards: Ron Franklin called me 'sweet baby,' not 'sweet cakes'
USAToday.com, January 3, 2011, Accessed January 3, 2011. Franklin apologized for his remarks the following Monday and said he deserved to be pulled from the Fiesta Bowl. However, ESPN fired Franklin the following day; in a statement, ESPN noted, "Based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him."

Personal life and death

Franklin was married with one child. He lived in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. Franklin died on January 18, 2022, at the age of 79.Longtime ESPN Commentator Has Died At 79
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References

;Notes ;Sources *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Ron 1942 births 2022 deaths American television sports announcers Baseball announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Houston Oilers announcers Television anchors from Houston National Football League announcers University of Mississippi alumni Tennis commentators Texas Longhorns football announcers Sportspeople from Jackson, Mississippi Journalists from Mississippi Beauty pageant hosts American radio DJs Southern Methodists American United Methodists People from Hazlehurst, Mississippi