The Card Album

With over 525 player alumni and staff from the University of Miami Football program represented, I believe my Hurricanes card collection is the most expansive in existence. It includes players that have been inducted into Hall of Fames through practice squad members and those that merely committed and walked away before the season began. Also represented are head coaches, assistants, and other staff members of the program. Along with traditional football cards, I also count similar flat collectables like pocket schedules and ticket stubs.

The Card Album is my personal collection showcase. I originally designed my first website, CardMagnet.info, from scratch in Microsoft FrontPage and used tables to organize things. The site was updated regularly 2009 to 2021. I’m proud to say that I had regular viewers from around the world, and my content was frequently in the top results on Google’s web and image results. The time came to put some new tools and ideas to use, and so TheCardAlbum.com was born.

Franklin was born in St. Nazaire, France, while his father was stationed in the US military. He grew up in San Jose, California, attended Yerba Buena High School. He attended San Jose City College, a junior college, where he played both years and earned junior college All-American honors in 1985. He transferred to Fresno State University, where he played for two seasons. While playing for the Bulldogs he earned All-American second-team honors both seasons, set a then-school record with 19.5 sacks his junior season, and was the Pacific Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year and Fresno State’s MVP as a 1987 senior. He graduated from Fresno State with a bachelor’s degree in criminology in 1988.

In the 1988 NFL draft, Franklin was drafted in the 11th round (298th overall) by the Houston Oilers.^[1] He did not play for the Oilers, but played defensive line for the Seattle Seahawks in the 1989 season. He then was the No. 1 draft choice of the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football in 1991, but instead opted to begin his coaching career.