Aurora: Well, we’d love to start by asking you to share with our listeners who you are and what you do. Tell us a little bit about Coach Franklin.
Coach: So my name is James Franklin. I’m the head football coach at Penn State University. I grew up just outside of Philadelphia. I got my undergraduate degree in psychology, got a masters degree in educational leadership. I’ve been the head coach now here at Penn State for six years. Go on. Year seven. And I’ve been a head coach completed for nine years. I was the head coach in the SCC at Vanderbilt for three years. And so go into the year 10 as a head coach. Married, married and got two beautiful daughters and a strong, beautiful, intelligent wife.
Kelly: That is awesome. I’ve heard that you’ve said that your goal is to be the first African-American coach to win a national championship. Why is this important to you at this moment in time, Coach?
Coach: Well, a couple of things. Because black coaches really probably know black people. And in a lot of different industries or people of color in any industry, you have a little bit of added pressure or weight that you carry that not only do I want to be successful for Penn State. Not only do I want to be successful for our student athletes and and for the assistant coaches, but I also know that the success that we have here in the success that I have here may open the doors for others. So university president or university athletic director that sees someone in this position that looks like me that is having that type of success, it may make it more comfortable or more manageable to offer that opportunity to somebody else. And if you look right now, the numbers in Division One, college football, major college football, I think is one hundred and thirty two Division One football programs and not very strong numbers in terms of African-American head coaches and the same thing in the NFL. So I think that’s something that I kind of always have taken with me. And to be honest, that I get a lot of calls from NFL assistance and get a lot of calls from college systems about how you have to be successful there. It’s it’s it’s important for all of us.
Aurora: Absolutely know that. No, the weight of that responsibility on the shoulders very well, as someone who’s traverse the not the field, not the football field or field at all, but certainly corporate America for sure. So I’d love to ask, coach, you know, what are the unique challenges that you feel that you faced as a black man, as a black coach in what really, as you stated by the numbers, are predominantly white sports engine?
Coach: o you guys know my background. I’m bi-racial. So my mom is from England. My dad was in the Air Force, and was stationed in Manchester, England. My mom, they eloped to Ireland, got married and then he brought her back to this really romantic city called Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they started popping out being babies, me and my sister. And then we moved just outside of Philadelphia. Actually, my dad worked in Trenton, New Jersey. So that’s that’s where we were raised. My wife is biracial as well. My wife is actually half Nigerian. So, you know, we kind of have a pretty unique background and a pretty unique perspective. And I look at it as a positive. I can kind of see things from a lot of different perspectives. I can look at it through, you know, multiple different lenses
Coach: every time you get through some type of challenge or every time you get through some adversity, it makes you stronger. It makes you stronger as a person. It makes you stronger as a family. It makes you stronger as an organization. So, you know, for me, you know, my first head coaching job was at Vanderbilt.A lot of people told me that I probably shouldn’t take the job because no one had really been successful there. And I just felt like it was a risk that I needed to take. You know, so we were able to go there and kind of change the narrative. And we’re able to go to three ballgames three years in a row and two years one, nine games in a row in the SCC, which is a really good conference. And then obviously the opportunities came to come to a place like Penn State. So I guess what I would say is, is sometimes, you know, whether it’s football or whether it’s business or whatever field you may be in. You may have to take on a little bit more of a calculated risk than maybe others to get that opportunity. You know, so that would be one challenge that I but I think, you know, that I would stay. But again, I try to look at all these things as positives as much as I possibly can.
Kelly: Well, a lot of our listeners, Coach, they consist of a lot of white women, some white men who are waking up to their inherent racism, really, and becoming aware of our white supremacist cultural conditioning and are just starting to do their work. What would your opt-in be for our listeners?
Coach: You know, I again, I’m a big believer that you focus on the things that you can control, and that is, you know, your attitude, that is your work ethic, that is the thing that you’re willing to sacrifice to be special. To me, there’s a lot of people in our country that are spending a lot of time fighting things and battling things that they have no control over. And I don’t want this to be misinterpreted. There are battles that need to be fought and should be fought and will be fought. But I think it’s also a very, very important that you’re finding a way to make an impact on people and you’re finding a way to make an impact on society. So I think the reality is, some situations are more challenging, some situations are more difficult. The reality is it’s there. It’s gotten better over years, but it’s not gone. And again, what I try to do is rather than focus on those things. Focus on the things that I can do to make a difference, to be an example.I’ve got two daughters who are looking up to me every single day and obviously they’re going to face a different set of challenges, challenges as women of color. So, you know, you can make the argument that they’re going to have a whole nother hurdle to overcome. But that’s my job as their dad and my wife’s job as their mom is to try to create as many opportunities and teach them the resiliency to overcome some of these challenges.
Aurora: Beautiful. Beautiful. And that’s a perfect segue way into our question, which is, you know what Intergenerational wisdom qould you like to impart, you know, as you think about your daughters, as you think about the role modeling and the path that you are sort of party and creating and showing all of us. You know, what is that intergenerational wisdom that may have been shared with you or not, but that you would love to pass on to those listening?
Coach: Well, I think that that’s the interesting thing that me and my wife struggle with. You know, so I grew up in a single single-parent home. My mom raised us, me, my sister. I’m a first generation college student. My wife, my wife, no single parent home as well. She grew up on a trailer on the side of a mountain in Spokane, Washington. You know, so we struggle all the time as we’ve worked very hard. Both of us have a master’s degree. We’ve worked very hard to create a life that’s very different than the life that me and my wife had growing up for our daughters. But then that’s the challenge, is we create opportunities. Our kids have had experiences by the time they were 12 years old that me and my wife didn’t have until we were 30. And that is a blessing. But we also struggle with, you know, that some of those experiences and adversity that we had to overcome is what made us who we are. So what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to work so hard that you create these opportunities for your children, but then your children become entitled, your children become privileged. And then that’s the last thing that we want to do. So there’s that balance of tough love of experiences and a perspective that you’re trying to pour into your kids. But that’s the challenge. You know that’s the challenge that we struggle with as you worked so hard to create these opportunities for your children, but you also don’t want them to lose some of the things that are critical to the growth and the development, which is which is some of that adversity. So, you know, me and my wife struggle with that every every single day. And raising two daughters…Finding a way to do that that are that our kids are balanced and our kids have great perspective on life.
Kelly: Thank you for your perspectives and your gems, coach. We’ll be cheering you from the sidelines. I’ll make sure to keep us updated.
Aurora: I needed that, Kelly.
Kelly: I know, girl. Me, too. Nothing like a dose of humanity during this difficult moment.
Aurora: And we’re here for you. Seriously, let us know what’s on your mind. Find us on the socials @ the opt in.
Kelly: We’ll be here next week with a full episode.
Aurora: Music for this episode is by Jordan McCree. And the Opt-In is produced by Rachel Ishikawa.
Kelly: Stay safe.
Aurora: We love you.
Kelly: Bye!
