Harrisburg native. Lock Haven point guard. Nike's best ball-handler. Guinness World Record holder. Harlem Globetrotters head coach. And, since 2014, the founder of a nonprofit that has never charged a child to attend.
Chris Franklin was a Susquehanna Township High School player named to the Patriot-News Big 15, then took a scholarship to Lock Haven University, where he finished second all-time in assists and ranked inside the national top ten for assists and steals. He graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work and took a Master of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998.
He entered a national Nike ball-handling competition judged by NBA All-Stars and won it with a perfect score. That put him in Nike's 2001 Freestyle commercial — an advertisement that won twelve awards and now sits in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. More Nike spots followed, including LeBron James's first commercial. The Globetrotters called after that.
He wore number 14, toured for the better part of two decades, and holds the Guinness World Record for the farthest kneeling basketball shot made backwards — 19.39 m (63 ft 7.5 in), set on 14 November 2019 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. He is now the team's head coach.
In 2014 he started the foundation that carries his name. Among the children who came through his Harrisburg camp was an eleven-year-old girl named Crissa Jackson. Years later he invited her to a Globetrotters tryout in Philadelphia, and she became the 13th woman ever to play for the team.
Giving back to the city of Harrisburg has always been something near and dear to my heart. I grew up in Hall Manor and currently live a few blocks away from those same projects, so being able to help really hits home for me.
