Stewart “Red” Faught takes a break at the annual golf tournament during Franklin College’s 1998 homecoming celebration.
Daily Journal Archives
News from around Johnson County as reported on Sept. 17 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 2005, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about the death of a Franklin College legend: Stewart “Red” Faught.
Faught, who died three days earlier at the age of 82, coached football at Franklin for 23 years and was the innovator of the high-flying run-and-shoot offense. From 1957 to 1988, he led the Grizzlies to a 160-139-6 record and 18 winning seasons.
He also guided the Grizzlies to their only bowl game, a 40-12 win against Wayne State in the 1970 NAIA Mineral Water Bowl.
Franklin College lost a pillar of its community, and a man filled with compassion for others, former players said.
“He changed the course of Franklin College football history. We won,” said Butch Lawson, who had the unique experience of both playing for and coaching alongside Faught.
“He was obviously a genius at creating a quarterback,” Lawson said. “He could take a kid — gangly, tall, short, whatever he was — and come out of the kitchen a quarterback.”
During 21 of his 32 years, Faught’s quarterbacks finished among the top 10 statistically in the nation. He also helped develop receivers to catch the passes.
Faught didn’t just coach. He touched lives.
Reece Mann, who was quarterback from 1987-90, always wanted to have a pen and paper around when he was with Faught.
“Everything he says is wisdom and knowledge,” Mann said. “You want to apply it to your own life.”
Mann said he felt blessed for the opportunity to see Faught at the hospital one last time.
“He had a horrible cough, too. But he kept saying, ‘It sounds worse than it is,’” Mann said.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2019
Indiana State Police were continuing to investigate the death of an eight-week-old Franklin girl.
2014
Work on the long-planned Center Grove area Walmart was underway.
1974
A Sheet and Metal Workers Union was picketing the construction site of a K-Mart on U.S. 31 in Greenwood.
