Class of 2017
Filled with outstanding athletes, one of the best on that team was wide receiver Calvin Franklin, who will be inducted into the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame later this month as part of
the 2017 class.
As good as Franklin was on the football field, he was equally good at
basketball, which he used a springboard to play collegiately following a successful prep career at West Limestone. After spending his first two years at Shoals Community College, Franklin transferred to Athens State where he excelled as a point guard in the early 1990s.
“Calvin was a tough-minded individual,” said Barry Devine, who was Athens State’s Sports Information Director at the time. “He distributed the ball really well and was just a good leader.”
With Franklin at the point, Athens State were the Southern States Conference regular season champions his junior season, but lost in the first round of the conference tournament and just missed getting an at-large bid to the national tournament. Franklin led Athens State in assists his senior season.
“He was a really good point guard,” said Devine. “He did what a point guard was suppose to do. He was a good basketball player, but he might be known more for helping West Limestone to a runner-up finish in football.”
Franklin was a first-team All-State selection for West Limestone in 1989, but it’s what he and his teammates did the previous year that put the Wildcats on the football map. Following a pair of 8-2 seasons under head coach Mike Nave, West Limestone advanced to the school’s first and only state championship game.
While they lost that game, Franklin and his teammates let the rest of the state know where West Limestone High School was. That 1988 season marked the program’s first 12-win season, first playoff appearance and set records for points scored and victories in a season.