Franklin Burns Barnett came to Howard Payne on a football scholarship after his service in World War II as part of an Army postal unit. He landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on D-Day, where U.S. troops received their first mail from the U.S. The unit moved on to Belgium in the winter of 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge. Barnett was then transferred to Austria and was there when the war ended. Before sailing home in January 1946, he played a few football games with another infantry company in Munich, Germany, leading to his enrollment at HPU when he returned home. Barnett graduated in just  three years in 1950 at Howard Payne, playing end on the football team for all three years. He was second-team All-Texas Conference in 1949 as a senior. He also was co-captain in his senior year and was president of the H-Club for HPU sports lettermen. Barnett also played basketball. After graduation, he joined the coaching staff at Ballinger High School. While he was coaching, he earned his master’s degree from McMurry College in Abilene. After coaching, Barnett spent most of his career in sales with Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation in their supply divisions in Texas and Oklahoma. He later worked as a sales manager with Mountain Iron Steel Company retiring in 1987. He died in Dallas in 2017.