Tag Archives: Teacher Athletes

Rich Franklin: The Multi-Talented Math Teacher

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RichFranklinphotoIt’s no surprise that gifted and talented educators possess expertise in fields beyond the educational sphere. This is demonstrated very well by math teacher, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion, mixed martial artist, businessman, and actor Richard Jay Franklin, Jr.

Rich was born on October 5, 1974, one of two sons of Richard Sr. and Valia Franklin. Although he was born in Kentucky, he was raised in Cincinati, Ohio. His parents divorced when he was only five years old, and through subsequent marriages he acquired five additional half-siblings. As a youngster, Rich attended William Henry Harrison High School. Following his graduation, he enrolled at the University of Cincinatti, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and his master’s degree in education. After college, Rich taught mathematics for four years at Oak Hills High School in Cincinatti.

lu25005-edit-199x300During his years as an educator, Rich launched a career as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), with a goal of fighting professionally. He left the teaching profession to pursue his goal full-time. He quickly moved up the ranks, and in 2005 earned the UFC Middleweight World Title. Following this victory, Rich accepted a position as a coach on the second season of the television show The Ultimate Fighter.

In 2003, Rich launched a clothing company with several business partners. This enterprise was named American Fighter. “The American Fighter message was about finding the fighter in each of us,” Rich once explained, “Whether you are a person battling cancer, an athlete preparing for competition, or a soldier stepping into combat, we all have a fighter in us.” In 2012, Affliction Clothing expressed an interest in American Fighter. They acquired the majority of the company to take the brand to mainstream retailers where it continues to grow. “The American Fighter name had an obvious connection with military personnel and I have always felt it is my civic duty to give back to the troops,” Rich says. “I have visited military bases all over the country, both domestic and abroad. The most recent trip was to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In 2006, I began working with the military extensively, particularly with disabled veterans.” Specifically, Rich is an avid supporter of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) organization.

Rich made his acting debut in a film called Cyborg Soldier,  where he portrayed an escaped super soldier. In 2010 he starred in Hamill, a story inspired by the life of Matt Hamill, a deaf UFC fighter. He can also be seen playing MMA Coach Billings in the 2014 comedy Mantervention.

The multi-talented Rich Franklin: a true chalkboard champion.

Pro Wrestler and Physical Education Teacher Angelo Poffo

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poffo_angelo1There are many talented educators who have earned accolades in fields other than education. This is the case with Angelo Poffo, a physical education teacher from Chicago, Illinois, who had already established a reputation as a professional wrestler.

Angelo was born April 10, 1925, in Downers Grove, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants. When he first started school, Angelo spoke no English. “I remember, my first day, it got to be around noon, and I didn’t know what was going on, so I went home,” he once said. “That didn’t go over real well.” At school, young Angelo got tough in a hurry, learning to defend himself from kids who picked on him. But his immigrant parents were strict and overprotective. They insisted that he stay at home to study and do chores, and forbade him from working out in the high school gym or playing sports.

After his high school graduation, Angelo enrolled at DePaul University in Chicago. As a young man, he thought that baseball was going to be his ticket to success. He earned a spot on the university baseball team as a catcher. “My catching was good and everything, but my hitting was bad. So I had to give it up,” recalled Angelo. At DePaul, Angelo studied physical education and played competitive chess. Before being hit by a baseball and getting plate-shy, he played ball with George Mikan, who would later become the first big NBA star. DePaul is also where Angelo met his wife, Judy Sverdlin. The pair married on June 6, 1949, and had two sons, Randy and Lanny. Both of Angelo’s sons also became professional wrestlers.

During World War II, Angelo served his country in the US Navy. The first time he saw the weight room, he remembered, he felt like a kid again. “I thought I was in heaven,” he once said. As a 24-year-old pharmacist mate, his unit was stationed at the Naval Destroyer Base in San Diego. Angelo hit the gym for hours on end, sculpting his 6-foot, 200-pound physique. On July 4, 1945, the young sailor set a world record of 6,033 sit-ups in four hours, ten minutes. “Somebody did about 5,000 and his abdominal aorta broke and he died. So I did 6,000 and I was so happy that I was still alive, I did 33 more sit-ups, one for each year of Jesus Christ’s life,”Angelo once recalled. He became an instant celebrity on the base, and word soon spread beyond the Navy. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not showcased his achievement in their newspaper strip and presented him with a gold belt emblazoned with his record.

After his discharge from the Navy, Angelo launched a 35-year career as a professional wrestler. He was strong and determined, and it turned out he was a natural. First came billings at small events and carnivals. During the 1950’s, his fights were televised on the DuMont network, but much of his time was spent on dreary long-distance drives. On one trip, he drove former boxing champ Joe Louis, who had become a wrestling referee, to a match in Minnesota. They stopped at a restaurant, but Louis was refused service because he was black. Angelo brought dinner back to the car so Louis could eat. But as a pro wrestler, Angelo’s crowning achievement came December 27, 1958, when he dethroned Wilbur Snyder for the U.S. TV Title in Cincinnati.

When Angelo decided to retire from professional wrestling, he accepted a position as a physical education teacher and wrestling coach in Chicago.  “I was just getting older,” he admitted. “I saved all my money and I was happy with the money I got,” he recalled. “Then I started teaching school in Chicago, physical education.”

In 1995, Angelo Poffo was inducted into the World Championship Wrestling Hall of Fame. On March 4, 2010, this dedicated educator, talented athlete, and US veteran passed away at the age of 84.

Bill Thieben: High School History Teacher, Principal, and NBA Star

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OBJIUUEQDENVLZF.20090408171622[1]Many chalkboard champions have distinguished themselves as talented athletes, and this is certainly the case with William Bernard Thieben, who is also a retired professional basketball player.

Bill Thieben was born in Suffolk County, New York, on March 28, 1935. He attended Sayville High School from 1948 to 1952, and played for his high school basketball team. After graduation, he enrolled at Hofstra University. In his sophomore, Bill played for his college team, and in his junior year, he was named an All-American by Look Magazine. In his senior year, he was again named an All-American by Look Magazine, and he also won the Haggerty Award, given to the New York City top male collegiate basektball player. Bill was the first student from Hofstra to earn this prestigious award. He graduated in 1956 with degrees in history and political science.

Bill was drafted into the National Basketball Association and played for the Fort Wayne Pistons during the 1956-1957 season, and the Detroit Pistons during the 1957-1958 season. At 6’6″ and 196 pounds, he played the position of forward. He participated in a total of 85 games during his professional basketball career.

After two season of professional basketball, Bill accepted a position as a history teacher at Bay Shore High School in Bay Shore, New York. His imposing stature, his hearty voice, and his unique ability to connect with students made him a truly remarkable educator. After three years in the classroom, Bill was promoted to assistant principal, a position he maintained for ten years. In 1971, Bill became the principal at Rocky Point High School, where he remained for twenty-three years. He retired in 1994. During these years, Bill also taught history and sociology at Suffolk Community College, Long Island University. He was also a professor of secondary education at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue.

Bill Thieben’s positive influence on the students of Bay Shore was recognized in July of 2000. Almost three decades after leaving Bay Shore, students who attended the school in the 1960s honored this chalkboard champion by establishing a permanent memorial plaque at the high school in his name. Engraved on the plaque are the words “William B. Thieben – The voice that launched a thousand school days remains forever in our hearts.” A William B. Thieben Scholarship Fund was also created in his honor. In addition, an annual award is given to a senior graduate who needs a helping hand, because the students felt that Bill “was always there to lend a helping hand.”

In 1990, this talented athlete and remarkable educator was inducted into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2003, he was named a Colonial Athletic Association Basketball Legend, and in 2008, he had his jersey (#93) retired by the University.

Ad Carter: The High School Foreign Language Teacher who Climbed Mountains

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539w[1]Often talented educators earn recognition for achievements outside the realm of teaching. Such is the case with Hubert Adams Carter, a high school foreign language teacher, mountain climber, and journalist from Massachusetts.

Hubert, who was most often called “Ad,” was born on June 6, 1914, in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1932, and from Harvard University in 1936.

Ad was very young when he began his career as a mountain climber. He made his first notable ascent at the age of five when he climbed Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Ten years later he  climbed the Matterhorn, and he also began making ascents near  Kandersteg in the Swiss Alps. In 1936, during his senior year at Harvard, Ad was a member of the British-American Himalayan expedition that climbed India’s Mount Nandevi for the first time. In 1937, this amazing athlete was named to the US Ski Team, competing in the Alpine World Skiing Championships. The following year he participated in the Pan American Championships.

In 1938, Ad married fellow teacher Ann Brooks, pictured with him above. The union produced three sons and a daughter and lasted 53 years.

During World War II, Ad assisted with the establishment and training of the 10th Mountain Division. A talented linguist, he translated material in German, Italian, French, and Spanish for use in writing the first army manuals on mountain warfare. He also interrogated Japanese and German prisoners of war. For these valuable services, Ad was given a Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1945.

After the war, Ad returned to school. He earned his master’s degree from Middlebury College in 1947, and then accepted a position as a teacher of foreign languages at his alma mater, Milton Academy. He taught German, French, and Spanish. He also founded the school’s Ski and Mountaineering Club, which today is known as the H. Adams Carter Outdoor Program. The dedicated teacher often used his vacation home in Jefferson, New Hampshire, as a base camp for school field trips to the White Mountains.

In addition to teaching, from 1954 to 1958, Ad contributed his expertise as an officer of the American Alpine Club, and from 1960 to 1995, he served as the editor for the American Alpine Journal, a position he held for 35 years. Under his leadership, the Journal became one of the most prominent  journals of record for mountaineering in the world.

Ad retired from the teaching profession in 1970 after 23 years as an educator. This chalkboard champion, journalist, and talented athlete passed away on April 2, 1995, at the age of 80, from an embolism.

Special Education Teacher David Allen Johnson: Chalkboard Champion and Olympic Athlete

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Dave-Johnson640[1]Since the Olympic Games in Sochi have dominated the news the past week, now is a great time to honor our chalkboard champions who are also accomplished Olympic athletes. One such individual is David Allen Johnson, a special education teacher from Oregon who earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

Dave was born on April 7, 1963, in North Dakota. He grew up in Missoula, Montana, where he attended CS Porter Elementary School, Sentinel High School, and Big Sky High School. In 1980, Dave’s family moved to Corvallis, Oregon. Dave was enrolled in Crescent Valley High School, where he graduated in 1981.

Even as a child, Dave was exceptionally fit and coordinated and lifted weights from a young age. He played Little League baseball and experimented with boxing. During his adolescence, however, Dave was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease in both knees, a condition that kept him from participating in high school sports. Despite his condition, during his junior high year, he excelled in track, touch football, and basketball.

In his years in high school, Dave admits that he made some bad choices. “Basically, I just didn’t have a lot to do. I just got into trouble,” he once said. “There were ten of us who did things together a lot. We called ourselves the West Side Gang. We didn’t know what we doing. We just wanted to call ourselves something. We had nothing to do.” With these friends, Dave was involved in a series of petty thefts, mostly stealing soda pop and beer from local distributors, but there were also some home burglaries. One of the boys was caught and informed on the rest. When Dave went to the Olympic Games in 1992, he detailed his experiences to reporters, and later used the material for his book and speaking tour as an example on how a teenager could turn his life around.

After high school, Dave enrolled at Azuza Pacific University, a private Christian college located in Azuza, California. While there, he started to compete in decathlon events. At 6’4″, he put his innate abilities and his constant physical training to use and began setting records. Dave became a four-time national champion, and competed in the Olympic trials four times. He earned a berth on the US Olympic Team twice, first in 1988, and then again in 1992. During the 1992 competition, Dave suffered a stress fracture in his left foot on the first day of events. Despite his injury, he put on shoes that were two sizes too big, laced them up tightly, and completed anyway. Astonishingly, he won a bronze medal in the pole vault. Dave retired from competitive sports in 1997.

Dave earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1986, and completed the requirements for his master’s degree in special education in 2003. He accepted his first teaching position in 1998 as a special education resource teacher at Sierra Vista Middle School in Covina, California. In his year and a half there, Dave also served as the Head Coach for track and the Assistant Coach for football. For the next six years, Dave was a special education teacher, Head Track Coach, and Assistant Football Coach at West Albany High School in Albany, Oregon. He then spent two years as an Assistant Principal and Director of Athletics at Jefferson High School in Jefferson, Oregon, followed by a two-year stint as the Athletic Director at South Salem High School in Salem, Oregon. In June 2009, Dave was named as the Athletic Director of  Corban University, a small private college in Salem.

After three and a half years at Corban, Dave left the field of education to become a motivational speaker. He also wrote the autobiographical book Aim High – An Olympic Decathlete’s Inspiring Story, with Verne Becker. This chalkboard champion and Olympic athlete was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. Currently, Dave serves on the local Salem Keizer Education Foundation Board, raising much-needed funding for schools and teachers. He also does volunteer coaching with his local Salem Track Club, a youth track and field organization.