Sculptor speaks to Rotary Club

Roscoe Rouse, Rotary

May 10, 2008 11:06 pm

— Not often does a civic club, in any city, have the honor of hearing a sculptor speak to the members. The Stillwater Rotary Club had such a special occasion recently.
Rotarian of the Day Beverly Alexander was acquainted with a sculptor in her home town, Perry, and persuaded him to speak to her club. Jim Franklin, the sculptor, had retired from the Ditch Witch Company in 2001 and took up his long time interest, sculpture, in a studio in Perry.
In addition to others, Franklin has turned out works of Dale Eberhardt Sr., Frank Phillips, the oil tycoon and George P. Peabody.
When he was approached by the Oklahoma Centennial Commission regarding a statue of Billy Sims, he knew it was another prominent figure known across the land, an individual who was known and praised far and wide. The award was given to Sims in 1978. He was the first, and to date the only, Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma. The process was initiated and funds began to come in from admirers of Sims. In only six years after he began his career in sculpture, Franklin has completed the Sims work.
Franklin brought Rotarians full details in the process of creating “a life-and-a-half size” statue. Uninitiated Rotarians in sculpture were wide-eyed at the procedure Franklin brought to them. For example, the average person probably thinks a bronze statue is solid bronze inside and outside. Franklin worked a figure resembling Sims out of a product called urethane which is similar to styrofoam but much heavier, although still malleable.
There were numerous items in the sculpture process that Franklin had to attend to, an example being the football unifom that players wore in the 1970s.
The same hairdo that Sims wore at the time was duplicated. Franklin said he scouted through many sources of pictures to determine other factors he needed to finish the product properly. When he had finished the urethane likeness, the various parts of the statue (arms, head, etc.) were taken to the factory to be bronzed.
The various parts of the statue were given to the bronzers and each underwent that process. After they came from the kiln, the parts were glued to the torso with an extremely strong glue. The statue was then given to the artist for coloring. Franklin uses a specific kind of chemical to slightly color any part that requires it, as, for example, a chemical that gives bronze a reddish color. That was used on the elbows.
The following procedure was for the foundry to weld the body parts to the torso. This was accomplished and the 1,000-pound statue was ready for the pedestal.
Asked how the finished statue was transported to its permanent home outside Memorial Stadium in Norman, Franklin said a “utility truck” was used. It has a beam loader which can lift a heavy object off the truck to its desired location.
The dedication ceremony for the Billy Sims statue was held by the University of Oklahoma Sept. 1, 2007.

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