Wilson’s basketball jersey retired

The Philadelphia High School athletic department recently retired the No. 33 in boys basketball in honor of alumnus Francisco Wilson Sr. for his continued contributions to the program.

Wilson played football, basketball and baseball while attending Philadelphia High School from 1991 through 1993. During that time, the Tornadoes won state championships in football and basketball.

Wilson has been a volunteer football coach on game night for the football Tornadoes. And this year, he is also helping Coach Robert Byrd with the Tornado basketball.

“Having my number retired meant a lot to me,” Wilson said. “A lot of great athletes have gone through Philadelphia and not many have received this honor. Marcus Dupree, Fred McAfee, Pashen Thompson. It’s a short list.”

Wilson said coach Byrd asked him to help him with the boys team last year.

“I said I was just waiting for you to ask,” Wilson said, “This year’s team is young. We lost our starting five from last year’s team and we are starting over. But this team is gritty. They are learning and playing hard.”

After his graduation from Philadelphia, Wilson went on to play college basketball at Mississippi College where he received a degree in Business Administration. While at MC, he was honored as freshman of the year, all-conference and player of the year,

After college, he came home and went to work for Yates Construction. He also started volunteering as a football coach with the Philadelphia Youth Football Program. Sometime later, he started helping with the Philadelphia Tornado football team.

He is the son of Dotsy Wilson and the late Earnest Triplett. He is married to Kimberly Wilson. Both have had a bout with the COVID-19 virus,

“We both caught it back in March when it first started,” Wilson said. “I felt bad and had body aches. But she was in the hospital for five days had trouble breathing.”