LAFAYETTE, La — Football’s T.J. Wisham and volleyball’s Brianna Franklin walked across the field on Saturday and were presented their crowns.
Wisham and Franklin made history as their first-ever student-athlete duo to be crowned homecoming king and queen at UL.
“This is my first time actually a part of homecoming week ever,” Franklin says. “Volleyball is always gone. It’s been amazing to me for sure. I think T.J. and I being student-athletes and being involved in everything that went on this week is a really awesome way to bridge the gap between athletes and students.”
“There’s always a first time,” Wisham says. “I’m just thankful they allowed me to go through the process. They were excited for the honor as much as I was.”
After being nominated for the court, Wisham and Franklin along with other nominees were interviewed by faculty, staff, student-athletes, and student leaders.
Each nominee was assigned a score. The ten nominees with the highest scores were selected to the court. With Wisham and Franklin being the highest-scoring male and female applicants, they earned the top honors.
“Going through the interview process and seeing the amount of people that could have been chosen to represent this University, and then they chose me at the end of the day, it’s just a huge honor,” Franklin says. “It’s super exciting.”
Franklin founded the Black Student-Athlete Association, and is currently the president. Wisham is the association’s vice president.
“It’s just really really exciting for us,” Wisham says. “We’re excited about the future of our organization and just being able to use our platform.”
To top off the Homecoming day, Wisham scored his first career touchdown in the Cajuns 45-0 win over Texas State.
“It was just big for it to happen today on Homecoming,” Wisham says. “It couldn’t go better. Then a shutout by the defense, one in almost two decades? It was a long time. That was huge. Today just couldn’t go any better.”