[1] Franklin brought a wrongful termination suit[2] against his former employer, alleging breach of contract by ESPN.
His mother allowed him to play sports in school as long as he also agreed to take voice lessons.
He suffered a head injury in high school that resulted in the formation of a blood clot that ended his football career and made him ineligible for the military.
He also worked as sports director for four different local news stations: KSWS-TV (now KOBR) in Roswell, New Mexico in 1965, KVOO-TV (now KJRH-TV) in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971, and in Houston, Texas with KHOU-TV from 1971 to 1980, then with KPRC-TV from 1980 to 1987.
In college basketball, he was the primary ESPN play-by-play man with Fran Fraschilla for Big 12 games.
He also called the tennis French Open, college baseball and the U.S. Olympic Festival, He hosted in some years the Miss Texas USA Pageants.
On October 1, 2005, during a game between Notre Dame and Purdue that Franklin was calling, sideline reporter Holly Rowe praised Purdue defensive coordinator Brock Spack for using all three timeouts on defense despite trailing by four touchdowns late in the game.
"[5][6] In response to that, Mo Davenport, senior coordinating producer for college football said, "It was an inappropriate comment, and we've communicated that to Ron.