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RIP Hayden Fry

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Regan MacNeil, Dec 17, 2019.

  1. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Funny, folksy, didn’t take himself too seriously. He (and later Mike White at Illinois) threw the balk in a running league.
     
  2. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Mike Stoops
    Mark Stoops
    Bret Bielema
    Jay Norvell
    Chuck Long

    All played for him. All went on to be head coaches.

    Jim Leavitt coached for him too.
    Don Patterson and Del Miller coached at the FCS level. Also former assistants.

    I’m sure there are others. His coaching tree had a lot of branches.
     
    D-3 Fan likes this.
  3. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    I only dealt with Hayden Fry in the last couple of years (and not regularly) but he was good. For those who covered him for 20 years, Fry is a first-ballot HOF in the "Coaches Who Are Good To Deal With", college football division.

    The guy positively changed the perception of an entire state -- as a football coach. Think about that for a second.
     
    D-3 Fan likes this.
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Grew up in LA loving USC but always liked Iowa probably because of Fry.

    There was something about his look, and I just liked watching the Hawkeyes play.

    Lived in Iowa City during his last few years there. The local TV commercials with him were great because of his thick Texas tongue.
     
  5. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    Grew up in Iowa, and I was 10 years old when he took over in 1979. My dad decided to start getting season tix for that season, and going forward.

    It is unreal how bad the program was before then - with only Northwestern a should-win game, and tearing down the goal posts for beating teams like Wisconsin, and unbelievable that he had Iowa in the Rose Bowl in his third season. Beat Nebraska and UCLA in the nonconference that season, and won at Michigan.

    A lot of people talk about how he brought the Big Ten into the passing-game age, and "scratch where it itches" and all that, and had fun the entire way - often needling whoever he could find to get a jab in at.

    But maybe his biggest contribution was desegregating the Southwest Conference, signing Jerry LeVias as the first black player signed to a scholarship in conference history, in 1966.

    RIP.
     
  6. ChrisLong

    ChrisLong Well-Known Member

    He also coached at Minnesota State and was married to Shelly Fabares. That is quite an accomplishment.
     
  7. D-3 Fan

    D-3 Fan Well-Known Member

    Fry has always said that giving LeVias a scholarship to play at SMU and desegregate the SWC was his biggest accomplishment and the one that meant so much to him.
     
    BurnsWhenIPee likes this.
  8. D-3 Fan

    D-3 Fan Well-Known Member

    The view from the UI Children's Hospital across the street from Kinnick today:

    [​IMG]
     
  9. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    I put his leaving Minnesota State to coach the expansion Orlando Breakers on par with Massimino going to UNLV. Just a dumb decision.
     
    wicked, BurnsWhenIPee and ChrisLong like this.
  10. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    One time Iowa was playing in East Lansing and the MSU radio analyst, Larry Bielat, said: “And here comes coach Hayden Fox and his Iowa Hawkeyes out of the tunnel.”
     
    maumann, BurnsWhenIPee and ChrisLong like this.
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