Leroy Franklin loved baseball about as much as he loved New Orleans.
In a perfect world, he probably would have been a Hall of Fame baseball coach in his hometown instead of 900-something miles away in Chicago.
But the world was far from perfect when Franklin, who grew up in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, graduated from Grambling in 1966.
“Chicago was a means to an end for him,” said Derek Franklin, one of Leroy’s four children. “Not a lot of opportunity for a Black man in the mid-60s in New Orleans or the Deep South. So he went to Chicago to teach school so he could make something of himself.”
And that’s what Franklin, a graduate of Joseph S. Clark High School, did. He headed to the Windy City and became one of the greatest high school baseball coaches in Illinois history.
Franklin died in his hometown of New Orleans on Sept. 12. He was 83.
“His legacy is unmatched,” said Jeff Jackson, one of Franklin’s former players.
Franklin taught P.E. in Chicago before entering the coaching ranks at Simeon High in charge of the sophomore team in 1975. He took over the varsity squad in 1981 and lasted through 2016. He compiled an 809-261-4 record, the most wins at a Public League school and the eighth most in Illinois state history. In 2005, he was the first Black coach inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
“He demanded excellence,” said Robert Fletcher, a former player who later coached with Franklin. “He held us accountable. He was a hard coach. If you could play for him, you could play for anybody. He was going to discipline you and say some things you might not want to hear, but he was going to tell it like it is. He was a father figure to me, a father figure to many.”
Franklin had more than 30 of his players selected in the Major League Baseball draft, including two first-rounders.
Jackson was the highest drafted player in Franklin’s Simeon-to-MLB pipeline. He was selected fourth overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1989, three spots behind former LSU star Ben McDonald and three spots ahead of Frank Thomas.
“If it wasn’t for coach Franklin, there would be no me,” Jackson said. “He was more than a coach. He was a mentor as well. He motivated you through hard work. He ran his program almost like the military. He was hard on us. So when you left him, you were prepared to play anywhere.”
Troy Williams also played for Franklin and now works in the Chicago White Sox front office. He calls his high school coach a leader of men.
“He was always going to hold you accountable, no matter who you were,” Williams said. “He made it his business to let his players know that he cared about us and loved us and coached us tough. But he coached us tough, no matter if you were the best guy on the team or the worst guy. He coached you hard and loud and was never afraid to challenge you if you weren’t playing up to your potential.”
Franklin didn't just coach baseball. He also coached life. Getting an education and being able to take care of your family is a lesson he preached.
Franklin instilled the same work ethic in his players that he has.
And boy did he have one. He had no choice. Simeon — the same school that produced NBA players Derrick Rose, Nick Anderson, Jabari Parker and current Pelicans rookie Antonio Reeves — didn’t have the best baseball facilities. Players referred to their baseball field as the sandbox.
“We played on an all-dirt infield with rocks and busted bottles of glass,” Fletcher recalls. “We didn’t have a home run fence. No batting cages. None of that. We didn’t have the resources. We did a lot with a little.”
When it came time to purchase uniforms or caps, it was often Franklin who footed the bill.
“If one baseball was missing, he was going to know because he kept up with them because it had to come out of his own pocket,” Williams said.
It didn’t stop there. During Williams’ junior year, Franklin loaded up a van and drove Williams and two of his teammates down to college visits to Grambling and Alcorn. Williams ended up choosing Alcorn, much like many of Franklin’s players played for schools in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Funeral services for Franklin will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at Corpus Christi -Epiphany Catholic Church in New Orleans. It’s fitting that it will be held in the city that was near and dear to him.
“The city meant a lot to him,” said his son Derek. “He remained a Saints fan from the time I was born until the time he died.”
Years ago, Franklin built a house in New Orleans. His plan was to someday retire in the city he so often bragged about to his players up north.
It’s the city that raised him before he headed off to Grambling and then Chicago, touching the lives of every baseball player he ever coached along the way. That includes Jackson, the No. 4 overall pick in the MLB draft 35 years ago.
“He definitely left a legacy behind,” Jackson said.