Temple fencing’s preseason tournament now bears the name of the Owls’ legendary coach

Nikki Franke left an indelible mark on Temple fencing in her 50 years as head coach. That’s why the program renamed its annual event the Coach Nikki Franke Classic.

“I think it’s super exciting,” head coach Jennie Salmon said of the Owls’ preseason finale, which starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Liacouras Center. “Once the official announcement was made, we got a lot of messages from alumni saying they love it, it’s great and well deserved. I think this year will have a lot of excitement because it’s the inaugural one. There’s going to be people buying the T-shirt and wanting the poster just to know it’s the first time.”

Salmon took over for Franke ahead of the 2022 season. Franke founded the fencing program in 1972, when she turned it from a club sport to a varsity sport, and had been its head coach until retiring last August. When she first took over for her mentor last season, Salmon’s idea was to honor Franke by renaming the Temple Open. The process took over a year but finally became official in October.

“I think the first time that we chatted about it with my supervisor, Justin Miller, it wasn’t a matter of ‘Can we do this?’ It was we’re going to do this,” Salmon said. “It was floating in the air, I will say, during last season. But I always knew I think after I survived my first Temple Open as head coach last year that the next one I hosted would be named after Coach Franke.”

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During her 50 years as head coach, Franke amassed 898 wins, including the 1992 national championship. It is the most wins by a women’s sports coach at Temple.

Franke is a member of five halls of fame. Franke is a member of the International Sports Hall of Fame, the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame (with the ‘92 squad and as an individual), the U.S. Fencing Association Hall of Fame, and the Brooklyn College Hall of Fame. Franke also was a two-time Olympian, appearing in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics for the United States.

“Her impact has been felt throughout the university, and she really is admired,” Salmon said. “She is a great sports person, but also she was a professor here. Someone who always had a great impact on the community well beyond Temple, so I think it was a no-brainer.”

About half the fencers on the current Owls roster were coached by Franke, and the new moniker could give them even more motivation.

“It’s kind of fencing for a purpose,” senior Sara Proctor said. “This is a meet before the regular season, but now that it has the name behind it and all of the years of history, you just have that feeling of importance. Not that it wasn’t there before, but now it just feels a lot more significant.”

Franke has made a lasting impact on fencing and the Temple community, and that legacy now will forever be enshrined in an event that draws approximately 500 student-athletes from over 30 schools and is considered the largest event of this kind in the country, according to the school. But after 43 years of this historic event being the Temple Open, a new era begins with the Nikki Franke Classic.

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