A Keystone Second Chance
Three Hundred years ago last autumn— in October of 1723 — a seventeen-year-old Benjamin Franklin first arrived in Philadelphia on an early Sunday morning in an attempt to establish himself as well as to escape the confines of the indentured servitude of his brother. What he would see as he made his way from the Market Street Wharf — would become his two greatest loves.
A young Debra Read — staring back at him from a Market Street Doorway and the City of Philadelphia.
With his pockets stuffed with an additional set of clothes and a few coins, Franklin was awed by the City that sat before. The morning autumn haze lifted, bringing Philadelphia’s beauty into full view. It was almost equally as fascinating to him as the gorgeous Debra Read that was capturing his gaze. For the rest of his life, after trips to Britain to buy additional printing presses or returning from a diplomatic mission as depicted in the Apple TV+ series Franklin — even after his wife of 44 years was gone — Benjamin Franklin always came home to Philly.
This past winter — which marked Franklin’s first in Philadelphia also 300 years ago — New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley was facing the biggest decision of his professional athletic career. While evaluating the prospect of elevating his game by going to a contender — not a team with Super Bowl aspirations, but rather Super Bowl expectations — he took his advice from his college Coach — Penn State’s James Franklin. The result was, in part, his arrival at the Novacare Complex in March of 2024 to sign a contract to become a Philadelphia Eagle.
The Penn State Head Coach who shares the same last name as Philly’s legendary Dr. Franklin — arrived to coach Pennsylvania’s most popular collegiate football team a decade ago. His Nittany Lion Football Program is currently ranked in the top five and 7–1 in 2024 — and whose roster includes former Philly’s Imhotep Institute Charter High School’s Keon Wylie as well as commitments from Wallace-Coleman, Kenny Wosely, Jr., and Tyseer Denmark also from Imhotep. Franklin left Vanderbilt for Penn State and one of America’s top coaching opportunities after managing only three nine-win seasons with the Commodores.
When James Franklin arrived for a fresh start in Pennsylvania to coach the Nittany Lions Football Team in 2014, many thought that he had an impossible task. Just three years removed from a scandal that culminated with the dismissal of the legendary Joe Paterno — the winningest coach in NCAA Division I Football history — a Pennsylvania football program dating back to 1894 was facing significant sanctions that many thought that from which it would never recover.
If you’ve attended a Penn State Football practice lately, low-key and patient may not be two adjectives you’d use to associate with James Franklin. But a decade after Franklin took over — Penn State football isn’t once again living — it’s thriving. Boasting an impressive 93% graduation rate, Penn State Football has five New Year’s Six Bowl victories, a Big Ten Championship in 2016, and six top twelve rankings, all in the last eight years under Franklin’s watch.
For James Franklin, patience and a plan for the third-ranked Nittany Lion Football Program have paid off. Penn State isn’t just a perennial team in 2024—they are positioned to be a college football playoff team.
PHOTO: Joe Maiorana/Imagn Images
The young man who arrived in Philadelphia in 1723 with almost nothing survived and thrived. His civic accomplishments included founding the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Union Fire Company—the first volunteer fire company in America—and, of course, serving as the elder statesman present during the creation of the Declaration of Independence at Constitution Hall in 1776.
We’ll have to wait until the chill of late January and early February to see whether or not Saquon Barkley’s addition to the Eagles — partially influenced by James Franklin — has paid off to help send the Birds back to Championship form. So far — the Whitehall, PA native is living up to his billing as one of the best running backs in the NFL. The Eagles knew this to be true — after having fallen victim to his athletic allusiveness during all the years, they faced him in the NFC rivalry.
Dr. Franklin—plagued with gout and kidney stones at the end of his life—finally passed away in 1790. In honor of his memory, the US House of Representatives wore black crepes. British ships lowered flags to half mast, and the National Assembly of France issued a decree for three days of mourning.
On April 21, 1790 — Benjamin Franklin’s funeral procession to Christ’s Church was the largest procession in Philadelphia until then.
His funeral attendance was some 20,000 people. Philadelphia’s estimated population in 1790 — was some 28,000 people.
PHOTO: Joe Maiorana/Imagn Images
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