From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

George Franck

American football player (1918–2011)

Summary

American football player (1918–2011)

Field	Value
name	George Franck
image	Franck-George-1947.jpg
caption	Franck in 1947
number	13, 5, 37
position	Halfback
birth_date
birth_place	Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Rock Island, Illinois, U.S.
height_ft	6
height_in	0
weight_lb	176
high_school	Central (Davenport, Iowa)
college	Minnesota
draftyear	1941
draftround	1
draftpick	6
statlabel1	Rushing yards
statvalue1	506
statlabel2	Rushing average
statvalue2	3.5
statlabel3	Receptions
statvalue3	27
statlabel4	Receiving yards
statvalue4	536
statlabel5	Total touchdowns
statvalue5	8
pfr	FranGe21
CollegeHOF	1604

New York Giants (, )
National champion (1940)
Consensus All-American (1940)
First-team All-Big Ten (1940)
Second-team All-Big Ten (1939)

George Henning "Sonny" Franck (September 23, 1918 – January 19, 2011) was an American professional football halfback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants.

Early years

Franck was born in Davenport, Iowa. After his playing years and early teaching and coaching career he returned to nearby Rock Island, Illinois.

Franck played college football at the University of Minnesota from 1938 to 1940, where he was a key player in the dominant national championship team of 1940. While in college Franck was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was drafted in the first round (sixth overall) in the 1941 NFL draft. Franck was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

War service

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Franck joined the U.S. Marines Corps and served as a pilot. He was also a spotter during the Battle of Iwo Jima. There he saw Notre Dame football star Jack Chevigny take cover in a crater shortly before Chevigny was killed in action. Franck later served aboard the .

Post-war

After the war, he continued to play with the Giants from 1945 to 1947. He eventually became a high school teacher and coach in Oklahoma City and then Rock Island High School in Illinois. He was a member of Broadway Presbyterian Church and enjoyed bowling. He was survived by Helen, his wife of 57 years. He bought and lived in the Shields House in Highland Park Historic District in Rock Island, IL., which is now owned by Filipino-American author, Jason Tanamor.

References

[https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll339:23224 1940 ''Minnesota Gopher'' yearbook, p.70], accessed 12 Aug 2020.
"1941 NFL Draft Listing".
"George Franck Stats".
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210505195924/https://qctimes.com/promo/front/article_5f954dac-2429-11e0-9d95-001cc4c002e0.html Sonny Franck dead at 92] ''[[Quad-City Times]]'' via [[Internet Archive]]. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
"George H. "Sonny" Franck".
"Highland Park Historic District".
"'Like living in a 1950s neighborhood'".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1918-births 2011-deaths all-american-college-football-players american-football-halfbacks american-presbyterians college-football-hall-of-fame-inductees corpus-christi-naval-air-station-comets-football-players el-toro-flying-marines-football-players high-school-football-coaches-in-illinois high-school-football-coaches-in-oklahoma military-personnel-from-davenport,-iowa minnesota-golden-gophers-football-players new-york-giants-players players-of-american-football-from-davenport,-iowa united-states-marine-corps-officers united-states-marine-corps-pilots-of-world-war-ii

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about George Franck — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report