Francis was a guard on the 1925 football team. The Annual said of their final game of the season: “Medford defeated Salem’s team by a score of 16 to 13 in what was said by all who saw it to be the best game of football they had ever witnessed. The teams were very evenly matched, the result being in doubt until the final gun. This victory gave the Medford team the Western Oregon championship, and also a logical claim to the state championship.”

Francis was picked by the “Big Ten” to their All-Time Tigers Mythical Eleven, saying of him: “No guard who played for Medford filled the position in every department better than Francis Neff. A hard-hitting interference runner, he also was adept at smearing plays behind the line.”