Franklin High School was the scene November 30 for the annual FHS Athletic Hall of Fame induction luncheon. The 1980 softball team, two coaches, and five individual athletes were inducted November 30 into the Franklin High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The third annual luncheon ceremony was held at Franklin High School, and was the final event in the Warrior For Life Scholarship Foundation-sponsored "I Love Franklin" week of events. In addition to the top-ranked softball team, track coach Henry Terrell; field hockey coach Patricia Weinert; track standouts Greg Gomez, Joycelyn Ellenwood and Clinton A. Bell; Cynthia Powell, the first FHS basketball player to score 1,000 points, and football and baseball standout Michael Pellowski were inducted into the hall. "It's just a great afternoon celebrating some of our past student athletes here at Franklin High School, who have been selected as hall of famers," said Nicholas Solomon, one of the event's organizers. "It’s a big reunion." "Some of these people haven’t seen each other in several years, and I’m glad we’re able to pull off a great event that can allow this to happen," he said. The Hall of Fame makes sense for Franklin because of the township's rich athletic history, said Daryn Plummer, another of the event's organizers. "I think it’s ingrained in a lot of things that we do as a community, as a school," he said. "The tradition, the history, the accomplishments of so many people here just brings people together." "It’s a time when people feel good about the things they’ve done athletically and as a community, so it’s a great to see so many different people to come out," Plummer said. "We come from an era when athletics was huge," Solomon said. "The old high school was in the middle of the community. All of the athletic events were part of that community." Solomon said organizers knew the event would be popular, especially being held around the Thanksgiving holiday. "We knew, especially with the Hall of Fame, that this time of year was important to do it," he said. "People always come back this time of the year." "It’s special to us, because we grew up watching some outstanding student athletes at Franklin High school, dreaming to be them, then we were able to live out our athletic careers and dreams," he said. "This is the last phase of it, try to give back so that our current students have an idea of what the athletic history is like here. And hopefully they’ll see that." Plummer credited fellow Warrior For Life Foundation creator Rebekah Solomon for the idea of grouping all of the week's events under the "I Love Franklin" banner. "We were doing a number of events during the week, anyway, and we thought of it like a community homecoming," he said. "Different people coming home for the holidays, and specific events brought out different groups of people." "It’s just an awesome, awesome week to be a part of Franklin," he said. Following are some scenes from the Hall of Fame luncheon:
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