Hobart and William Smith Colleges Athletics

DeFrancesco joins the Hobart Hall of Fame as an exceptional all-around athlete. Lettering in basketball, baseball and soccer, he excelled on the hardwood and the diamond in particular, serving as a team captain in both sports.

Before the end of his first basketball season, he worked his way into the starting lineup, earning praise from the Geneva Times for “some scrappy ball-hawking” and his “two professional one-handed slams” on his way to a 13-point night against Alfred. That season the Statesmen finished with a 9-8 record, eclipsing the team record for points in a season.

As a sophomore, DeFrancesco helped set a program record with 12 wins, which the team repeated the following year. He was elected co-captain for his senior season and led Hobart to yet another record-breaking year with 15 wins and just five losses. DeFrancesco and his classmates graduated with a four-year record of 48-23, the most wins and highest winning percent for a graduating class at the time. In 2010, the 1955-56 basketball Statesmen were named a Hobart Team of Distinction.

In baseball, DeFrancesco was a slick-fielding first baseman and a powerful switch hitter. In a 1954 game against Hamilton, he launched the first pitch he saw over the left field fence, a feat the Echo noted was the first home run since the fence was installed three years earlier. Elected captain as a junior and senior, he made his debut as a starting pitcher for Hobart in his final season.

DeFrancesco earned a varsity letter as a member of the Hobart soccer team during the program’s second varsity season — and first winning season.

An outstanding student and campus citizen, he was inducted into the Orange Key, Chimera and Druid honor societies as well as Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society in social sciences. He wrote for The Herald and was a member of Phi Phi Delta, the Interfraternity Council, the Newman Club and the Canterbury Club. He was elected vice president of the junior class and, one year later, president of his fraternity. In 1956, his versatility, exceptional athleticism and resolute leadership earned him the inaugural Francis L. “Babe” Kraus ’24 Award, as Hobart’s top athlete.

After earning a master’s degree in education from the University of Rochester, DeFrancesco spent more than 35 years teaching and counseling in the Finger Lakes Region before retiring in 1993.

A leader in the creation and growth of the William Smith tennis program, DeFrancesco remains a trusted mentor to Herons to this day. He served as an assistant coach for each of the program’s five head coaches and continues to support the team through individual lessons.

In the Geneva community, he is active in his neighborhood association and for many years led the Geneva Recreation Department’s tennis program. In 2012, the city named the tennis courts Brook Street Park in his honor.