Having become a senior college only five years earlier, Wayland’s Pioneers were still looking for their first NAIA National Tournament berth when Franklin D. “Frankie” LeGrange arrived in 1953. Le Grange had declined full scholarships in football offered by schools in New Mexico and Kansas to accept Coach Harley Redin’s offer to play basketball at Wayland.
    The Pioneers upset Howard Payne University to advance to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in 1953-54. One year later, LeGrange sank eight clutch free throws and a long jump shot in the final minute as the Pioneers upset Cotton Fitzsimmons and Midwestern State to earn a berth in Kansas City. The Pioneers were unseated as District 8 champions the following year, but LeGrange capped off a brilliant career with another national tournament appearance in 1956-57.
     LeGrange’s accomplishments are best judged not by statistics, but by the success of the team during his career. An outstanding athlete, LeGrange was “beyond a shadow of a doubt the best ball-handler and the most entertaining player ever to take the court for Wayland,” according to the Plainview Evening Herald.
    LeGrange completed a bachelor’s degree in education at Wayland in 1957 and taught math in public school in California and Texas for 23 years. He was also a high school principal in California for four years. He died of a sudden heart attack while playing slow-pitch softball in 1986, 11 years prior to his induction into the Wayland Athletic Hall of Honor. LeGrange is survived by his wife, Barbara, a Wayland alumnus and children, Teri Lynne and Darin Kent.