Former NFL Player Willie Franklin Attends Memorial for Kathy Kaaiohelo at Memorial Road Church of Christ

Erik Tryggestad, president and CEO of Oklahoma Christian University, attended the memorial service for Kathy Kaaiohelo at Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, his home congregation. He wrote that the church’s auditorium, which seats up to 2,000, often makes even well-attended services seem small. This service felt different, he said, because the room held many people.

Among those present was Willie Franklin, a former NFL player and gospel preacher. Tryggestad had heard Franklin speak about 30 years earlier, when he was a student at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and covered the visit for the student newspaper. He recalled that Franklin urged students to show character rather than “act like characters,” and told them, “You’re either leading somebody to God or you’re leading them away from God.”

Tryggestad said he asked Franklin why he had come to the funeral. Franklin told him that Kathy and her husband, Kenny, had played a major role in his life, as they had in Tryggestad’s.

Kathy was a native of Oklahoma. She met Kenny, who was born in Hawaii, while both were students at Oklahoma Christian. The couple married in 1968 at Memorial Road, then called the College Church of Christ.

Al Branch, a former president of Oklahoma Christian and a trustee emeritus of The Christian Chronicle, said the Kaaiohelos “took care of a lot of people” and “especially loved on and cared for college students.” Branch, who came to Oklahoma Christian from San Antonio, said he and many classmates “found solace in the Kaaiohelos’ home, and their laundry room, and their kitchen.” He said Kathy and his aunt, JoAnne North, were part of the encouragement that helped him marry his wife, Judy.

Franklin came to know the Kaaiohelos a few years after college. Born in Louisiana and raised in San Diego, he was a wide receiver for the University of Oklahoma in the early 1970s. The Sooners played Alabama to a 24-24 tie in the 1970 Bluebonnet Bowl. The NFL did not draft Franklin, but after an alumni game and interest from a pro scout, he was a walk-on for the Baltimore Colts. He returned to Oklahoma after his rookie season for graduate work, and there Ron Fletcher, who later became a minister for Churches of Christ, encouraged him, studied Scripture with him and baptized him (Hebrews 13:7).

“I met Kenny and Kathy after I had become a Christian and spent lots of hours at their home,” Franklin told Tryggestad. “In fact, I baptized their oldest son, Jason. They were always a strong influence in my life and still are. I consider them family.”

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