Franklin grads make their mark
Jessica Wray
October 1, 2010
Franklin College may be a small liberal arts school, but history shows there is nothing small about its graduates or their achievements.
Take the early 1920s for example. “Hoosier Hysteria” swept across Indiana and captured the attention of the nation. Basketball was the game to play, and Franklin was at the center of it.
The Franklin Wonder Five basketball team originated at what is now known as Franklin Community High School, lead by coach Ernest “Griz” Wagner. Although the name alludes to there being only five players, in reality, each year the team had new members added.
One of the most well-known players, Robert “Fuzzy” Vandivier, played forward and helped lead the college team to the state championship. Vandivier graduated from Franklin College in 1926 and later became Franklin High School’s basketball coach and took a position as a history teacher.
As coach, he won three regional titles and took his team in 1939 to the state championship game. The gymnasium at what used to be the old high school, and is now Franklin Community Middle School, was named Vandivier Gymnasium, after Vandivier.
The legend of the Wonder Five team and its graduates left an even more significant mark on both the high school and college athletic programs. The high school Grizzly Cubs and the college Grizzlies were named in honor of “Griz” Wagner and the success of his Wonder Five team.
Also, during college a friend of Vandivier’s and 1923 graduate was Roger Branigin. He was also a graduate of Franklin High School and was a cheerleader for the Wonder Five team during the season of their first state win. Branigin majored in French, Spanish and history at Franklin College, and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After graduation, he went to Harvard Law School. Branigin became a lawyer and later served in World War II. He ran for governor of Indiana, won in 1964 and served from 1965 to 1969. He ran for President in 1968 in the Democratic primary, but lost the nomination to Robert Kennedy.
Franklin College has a history of successful graduates, including Doritos inventor Arch West, class of 1936, but the graduates who work in the Franklin community today or have graduated recently haven’t dropped the ball on achievement.
College trustee John Auld, Jr. graduated from Franklin College in 1976 with degrees in journalism and history. While in college, some of the organizations Auld participated in included the newspaper, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the Inter-fraternity Council.
He is now president of Franklin Insurance Agency, which is a local independent agency in Franklin. He is chairman for the Partnership for a Healthier Johnson County and president of the Johnson County Health Foundation.
Auld said that it was in part the liberal arts education that contributed to the skills that he uses today in his career and the opportunities he had during college.
“I think it’s the fact that you get a strong liberal arts education, regardless of what your major is and it can apply in many, many different ways for all kinds of practical applications,” Auld said.
“The opportunities that I had, in leadership roles at the fraternity house are probably the most important, as far as life-long experiences and so forth and how to lead and accomplish things. At a social standpoint on campus, I had a number of very close relationships with professors that I think were important, and they taught you the value of a liberal arts education and the relationship issues you have at a small campus.”
