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Culture / Sporting Life

Phi Slama Jama Plans To Come Together Again to Honor Alvin Franklin at His Funeral — A True Point Guard Who Died Too Soon

Remembering One of the University of Houston's Most Underrated Historic Stars

BY // 02.04.25

Alvin Franklin never said a lot, but he certainly did a lot for Phi Slama Jama, those legendary University of Houston teams that stand out as one of the rare truly iconic groups in basketball history. Franklin’s former UH teammates remember Franklin’s quiet and his supersized (but often underrated outside that Houston locker room) impact almost to a man. And as the heartbreaking news of Franklin’s death at age 62 spread among his Phi Slama Jama teammates over the past few days, a plan started to materialize amid the grief.

“It’s very, very tough,” Michael Young, a star forward on Phi Slama Jama, says of losing Franklin. “Everybody started calling, talking again. We still talk a bit. I talk to Clyde (Drexler). I talk to Hakeem (Olajuwon). But Larry Micheaux was the one who gave me the news. . .  I heard from Rickie Winslow. Everybody started the conversation, we need to all get together somehow, sit down and talk.

“I think everybody is going to get together and we’re going to attend Alvin’s services.”

Yes, plans are in the works for Phi Slama Jama to come back together as one and go to Alvin Franklin’s funeral services as a group. As the team they will always be, forever linked. This time in grief.

“He was my point guard. . .” former UH standout Greg “Cadillac” Anderson says. “Alvin meant a lot. Alvin meant a lot to all of us, to me. When we played together, we knew each other off and on the court.

“You know, he helped me through some things when I first got to U of H.”

Anderson, one of the last members of Phi Slama Jama, arriving on campus for the 1983-84 season and playing in the last of the three straight Final Fours UH made in that era, didn’t have an easy transition to college life. Alvin Franklin helped make it better though, lifting another teammate up. Like the good point guard he always was.

A number of Franklin’s former teammates wish they could have made his own post playing career a little easier. Alvin Franklin didn’t have a smooth journey when he stopped playing basketball. He didn’t get rich off the game and sometimes struggled to find his way even as he found some success in the construction business. The last year turned out to be particularly hard with a devastating stroke changing everything.

“It was really, really sad news man,” Michael Young says. “I heard a few months ago he had a stroke and he was in a rehabilitation facility trying to learn how to walk again. And as I understand, he never recovered from it and he passed away Saturday night.

“It just kills me man. Alvin was such a great guy. And he was a big part of what we did at the University of Houston. We couldn’t have been who were — Phi Slama Jama — without Alvin.”

On that, every member of Phi Slama Jama contacted for this story agreed. While Hakeem Olajuwon (then known as Akeem Olajuwon), Clyde Drexler and Michael Young are all much, much better known and heralded as the stars, Alvin Franklin started as a true freshman point guard for the 1982-83 Houston team upset by North Carolina State in one of the most famous NCAA Championship Games in history and then did even more for the UH team that made it all the way back to the national title game again against Georgetown the following season.

“He came in after the Final Four that we lost to (Michael) Jordan and (James) Worthy and (Sam) Perkins (in 1982) and came in as a freshman the next year and started,” Phi Slama Jama’s Reid Gettys says. “And we didn’t give it to him.

“He earned it.”

Which didn’t stop some prominent names in college basketball from doubting Alvin Franklin.

“I remember Dick Vitale before the Louisville and the NC State (Final Four) games saying Houston could never win a national championship with a freshman point guard,” Gettys says. “And that wasn’t true. Alvin was great.”

The uber athletic Franklin put up 13 points, a game-high five steals and three assists as a true freshman in Houston’s high-flying 94-81 win over Louisville in that 1983 national semifinal. The next year in the championship game against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas, when some of his more famous teammates struggled some, Alvin Franklin led everyone in the game in points (21) and assists (nine) while playing 38 of the 40 minutes.

He was always a prime time player. Alvin Franklin rose to the biggest moments.

“He was a big part of what we did at the University of Houston. We couldn’t have been who were — Phi Slama Jama — without Alvin.” — Michael Young on his Phi Slama Jama teammate Alvin Franklin

“‘Alvin was instrumental in our Big run to the Finals!” Clyde Drexler texts of his former teammate. “He was quiet. . very confident, great defender, team orientated, great athlete. Could really run the fast break well, and was a good leader as a true point guard. Nice guy! I think he averaged like 39 a game in high school!!! Gone too soon!”

For that, there is no doubt either. These sixtysomething stars of Phi Slama Jama didn’t expect to be burying one of their teammates. Anyone who’s lived for a while understands how in college you think you’ll stay beyond close to your college friends all your life, but then life starts happening and you slowly start to lose contact with some of them. But you always think you have time to reconnect. Then. . .

“It was devastating. . .” Micheaux says of hearing about Franklin’s death from a former teammate in a phone call. “He means a lot. He was part of the puzzle. Being part of that, we all pretty much try and stay in touch with one another.

“When you lose one, it kind of hurts our heart.”

Alvin Franklin University of Houston Phi Slama Jama death
Former University of Houston basketball player Alvin Franklin, a key part of Phi Slama Jama, died much too soon.

Even as a reporter replaying the tape back of Alvin Franklin’s former Phi Slama Jama teammates talking about his loss over and over again to get the quotes exactly right, you can’t help but hear the pain every single time. It’s stark and raw. But the appreciation for what Franklin meant to those teams, to the Phi Slama Jama era, to University of Houston basketball in general comes through.

This was no ordinary player. No ordinary teammate. Alvin Franklin might not have even realized how loved he was.

“He could really score the ball, but he gave that up because of the talent and the players he had around him being the point guard,” Michael Young says. “And on the opposite side of the ball, he played tremendous defense.”

“He was just such a good teammate,” Gettys says. “That’s my biggest memory of him. Some guys aren’t necessarily good teammates. But Alvin was a good teammate. He came in with enormous expectations (as a highly-rated recruit) and he always put the team first.”

Alvin Franklin, The Teammate

Gettys roomed with Franklin for one year in one of those anything-but-huge UH quad rooms of the day and remembers the point guard being one of the most considerate roommates he ever had.

“He’s a brother to me,” Micheaux says. “Because Phi Slama Jama. . . Alvin Franklin was quiet. He didn’t talk much. . . But he means a lot. He was part of the puzzle. Being part of that, we all pretty much try and stay in touch with one another.

“When you lose one, it kind of hurts our heart.

Current University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson talked about his program needing to reach out to Alvin Franklin’s family on Monday. Sampson’s been committed to honoring UH’s storied hoops history and opening the doors for former Houston players from any era (personified in Sampson’s push to get Don Chaney’s number finally retired, which happened this last weekend). Right now, Alvin Franklin’s family is understandably still coming to grips with losing him.

The funeral date isn’t set yet. But Phi Slama Jama is already making plans to be there whenever it is. Largely as one. Coming back together as teammates to honor Alvin, one of the best teammates they ever had.

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