Stopped In His Tracks: Football Star Shifts Focus to Entrepreneurship with Frankie Telfort

July 13, 2020

When it comes to making lemonade out of a sour situation, Frankie Telfort proves that embracing the uncomfortable can open up life-changing opportunities. In this episode of Lift U Up: Inspiring Health Stories, Frankie shares his background as a highly sought-after South Florida high school football star whose career ended before his first college game. Disappointed but not broken, he didn’t let that slow him down, and instead built up an impressive resume – NFL coach by age 22, a top trainer at a high-end gym, and founder of Old Bull Athletics by the age of 23.

There are not many people who would embrace the news well that the dream they worked so hard for was over, especially at the age of 17. Luckily for Frankie Telfort, that was just the beginning of his story.

Frankie started playing football at the age of seven, and when the time came for him to choose a college to attend, he had 38 scholarship offers from Division I schools. He committed to the University of Southern California, and left South Florida for the west coast. However, not long after practices began, Frankie was given hard-hitting news. He had a slight heart murmur, and was shortly diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), which meant he could no longer exert himself in the way a football career would require.

As quickly as his college football career started, it was over. His story was captured in articles like this one by Bleacher Report titled, “A Tale of Sadness and Hope: Frankie Telfort to Quit Football”.

Though his college years looked different than he imagined, Frankie stayed at the University of South California. The school honored his scholarship and he became a team coach, where he could take the science and strategy he learned as a player and apply it to some of the best athletes in the world. After college he spent one year coaching for the Seattle Seahawks, before finding his way back to South Florida, where he started a career in training.

It wasn’t before long that Frankie realized he was built for entrepreneurship. In 2015 he founded Old Bull Athletics, blending personal training and physical therapy. Frankie and his team use movement to build their client’s strength, alleviate their pain, and promote their health one session at a time.

What else can you expect in this episode?

How Frankie’s mentors helped him achieve success at a young age.
The inspiring story of Frankie’s father, an immigrant who started with nothing and went on to build his own successful business.
The underrated benefits of training barefoot.
How Frankie gives back to high school students looking to pursue a career as a college athlete.
Frankie’s advice for breaking bad habits.