Legendary college football coach Dennis Franchione has died aged 75 after an on-and-off battle with cancer lasting a decade.
Franchione was a head coach from 1985 to 2015, most notably turning around TCU between 1998 and 2000 before taking the Alabama job.
He spent two seasons as head coach of the Crimson Tide during a turbulent time in Tuscaloosa as the program faced looming NCAA sanctions, before departing for Texas A&M, where he spent five seasons.
Franchione returned to coaching in 2011 with Texas State before retiring in 2015 then first being diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his kidney in 2016.
After being cleared, he was given a worse cancer diagnosis in 2021, but was in full remission by late 2022 after treatment, saying at the time: ‘Remission was the greatest Christmas gift ever!’.
However, according to the Star-Telegram, who confirmed his death, Franchione’s cancer returned earlier this year and he was moved to hospice care shortly before passing away.
Former college football coach Dennis Franchione has died at 75 after a long battle with cancer
Franchione transformed TCU at the end of the 1990s and led the Horned Frogs back to success
Franchione, pictured with wife Kim, spent five years as Texas A&M coach in College Station
Franchione had moved with his wife, Kim, to the north side of Austin after being re-diagnosed in 2021 to be closer to his doctor.
He returned to TCU in 2022 after head coach Sonny Dykes invited him to their Spring Game.
It ended any ill-will lingering over his decision to leave for Alabama in 2000, after he had started something special in Fort Worth with Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson.
Tomlinson later described Franchione as ‘a man that understood what it took to win. We needed tough love, and he delivered that from the beginning.’
Franchione also left Alabama in controversial circumstances after two winning seasons. He denied rumors about the Texas A&M job before the Iron Bowl in 2002, stating: ‘I’m not going to be the coach at Texas A&M.’
But soon after he left and told his players via video call about the departure after never returning to Tuscaloosa.
His Texas A&M tenure ended in even more shocking fashion as he resigned immediately after beating rivals Texas at the end of the 2007 season after controversy surrounding a paid email newsletter he had been distributing to boosters without knowledge of the school.
After being forced to publicly apologize and discontinue the newsletter, as well as receiving an official reprimand, he left after the end of his fifth season.
He spent two years as head coach of Alabama before leaving after NCAA sanctions
Franchione resigned from Texas A&M after a newsletter scandal at the end of the 2007 season
Franchione ended his career at Texas State, leaving the Bobcats and retiring after 2015
Franchione released a book in 2024, entitled: ‘Tough Times Never Last: The Coach Fran Story’. In the book, he referred to TCU’s Sun Bowl win over USC as 16-point underdogs on New Year’s Eve 1998 as ‘the favorite bowl win of my career’.
‘I wore the knees out of my pants begging them to take us,’ he wrote. ‘I feel like I willed that bowl game to happen.’
Franchione, who was head coach of New Mexico State from 1992 to 1997, ended his head coaching career with 213 wins, 135 losses and two ties, as well as going 4-3 in bowl games.
