https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayden_Fry

19471950
Baylor
Position(s)
Quarterback


Coaching career


19561958
Odessa HS (TX)
19591960
Baylor (DB)
1961
Arkansas (QB/RB)
19621972
SMU
19731978
North Texas State
19791998
Iowa

How come he never came here to coach?

Iowa great, Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry dies at 90


ADAM RITTENBERG
ESPN Senior Writer
9:33 PM ET3 Minute Read
Hayden Fry, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who led Iowa for 20 seasons and produced one of the sport's most important coaching trees, died Tuesday in the Dallas area after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 90.


Fry's family confirmed his death, saying in a statement released by Iowa, "We are proud to know that our father's life had a positive influence on so many people, the players, the coaches, and the fans who played for, worked with, and supported his long and successful coaching career. His legend will live forever with the people he touched and inspired, and the programs he led to greater heights."

Memorial services will be announced later.

Fry went 143-89-6 at Iowa, including a 96-61-5 mark in Big Ten play. He coached the Hawkeyes to three Big Ten championships, three Rose Bowl appearances and 10 AP Top 25 finishes. He's responsible for the Tigerhawk logo that all Iowa sports teams use, as well as the "swarm" entrance to the field, the pink visitors locker room at Kinnick Stadium and the Pittsburgh Steelers-themed football uniforms Iowa still wears. Fry coached Iowa to 14 bowl appearances. Barry Kemp, the creator of the longtime TV show "Coach," attended Iowa and named the show's title character, Hayden Fox, after Fry.

Before Iowa, Fry coached North Texas for six seasons and SMU for 11 seasons, recording a 232-178-10 overall record. He won coach of the year honors in three leagues, the Southwest Conference, the Missouri Valley Conference and the Big Ten, where he received the award three times. Fry also was Sporting News' national coach of the year in 1981.


In 20 seasons, Hayden Fry led the Hawkeyes to 14 bowl games (including three Rose Bowl appearances), a share of three Big Ten championships and 10 AP Top 25 finishes.
Iowa Athletics
He was inducted into college football's Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2010.

"Hayden Fry is a college football icon and an Iowa legend," Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz, a longtime Fry assistant who succeeded Fry after the 1998 season, said in a statement. "His Hall of Fame career is well known, but personally, he will always be the man who took a chance on me at the start of my coaching career. I was proud to coach with him and honored to succeed him when he retired. He's been a great mentor and a true friend. I am forever grateful to him."

Quite possibly Fry's biggest impact on the sport is the number of successful coaches who played for and/or coached under him. His coaching tree includes former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, former Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, former Iowa State and North Texas coach Dan McCarney and current college coaches Mark Stoops (Kentucky), Bo Pelini (Youngstown State) and Jay Norvell (Nevada).

"His vision included hiring coaches who would be forward-thinking and challenge each other," Ferentz's statement reads. "If you look across college football, you will see a part of his legacy in the coaches who he hired and mentored -- coaches like Barry Alvarez, Bill Snyder, Dan McCarney, Bob, Mike and Mark Stoops and many more."

Born Feb. 28, 1929 in Eastland, Texas, Fry played quarterback at Baylor and began his coaching career at Odessa High School in Texas before entering the college ranks at his alma mater in 1959. In 1961, he left to coach at Arkansas under Frank Broyles, who was Fry's position coach at Baylor. Fry spent only one season with the Razorbacks before landing his first head-coaching job at SMU, where he had five losing seasons before guiding the Mustangs to a Cotton Bowl appearance and a No. 10 final ranking in 1966.

Fry secretly began undergoing treatment for prostate cancer during the 1998 season and announced his retirement on Nov. 22, 1998. He lived in Nevada during most of his retirement.

"Iowa Athletics has lost an icon, a man that raised the bar for every Hawkeye program, and every member of our athletics department," Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said in a statement. "Hayden was respected by everyone who knew him. His passing creates a void for all those who played for, coached with, and supported his successful tenure as our head football coach."

atomicblast said:

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How come he never came here to coach?

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There were quite a few old timers that tried to bring Fry to Baylor before Baylor hired Briles. He would have taken the job. Baylor thought he was too old at the time. He was 79 at the time.

I remember a Baylor game against OU back in the Steele era. Fry was being honored at halftime. However he was on the field pre game during work outs. I saw him and Stoops embrace and just looked like they were having a father son chat down there between retired coach and former player.

Why didn't he coach here? It just never lined up right Baylor was never open at the right time and he wasn't available when Baylor did have openings. Just like Stoops never was the Hc at Iowa, DKR never was the HC at OU and the list goes on like that.

A non football related piece of trivia Hayden Fry was the high teacher of Roy Orbison.

atomicblast said:

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How come he never came here to coach?

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So he pitched a sort of unique approach that few wanted to risk.

I thought it was brilliant, I loved it, but keep in mind the key point, we had Robert Sloan as President and a guy fresh from a sales job in the sheet music industry as Athletic Director. To say they were unqualified and inexperienced would be....an understatement.

Hayden called and made his pitch, to Robert "Jet Powered Golf Cart" Sloan.

The key that was a bit off for all parties was he wanted to train Chuck Long to take over as head coach, but that his role was going to sort of be 'administrative.' Meaning he was going to be delegating a lot to assistants and then developing them and after like 4 years he'd step back completely and hand over the reigns.

People were skeptical of Long. He's a heck of a nice guy. Great reputation.
But I think the Okie connection alienated some. Understandably.

The wise move would have been to negotiate it. He liked us, and we could have benefited. Instead we sort of just circled the wagons a bit more.

He was an assistant coach at Baylor on John Bridgers staff in 1959 & 1960.

He was also a US Marine!

I didn't know he was the inspiration for my all-time favorite sitcom "Coach" whose creator attended Iowa. The lead character was named Hayden Fox which should have been a hint.

TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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atomicblast said:

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How come he never came here to coach?

---

So he pitched a sort of unique approach that few wanted to risk.

I thought it was brilliant, I loved it, but keep in mind the key point, we had Robert Sloan as President and a guy fresh from a sales job in the sheet music industry as Athletic Director. To say they were unqualified and inexperienced would be....an understatement.

Hayden called and made his pitch, to Robert "Jet Powered Golf Cart" Sloan.

The key that was a bit off for all parties was he wanted to train Chuck Long to take over as head coach, but that his role was going to sort of be 'administrative.' Meaning he was going to be delegating a lot to assistants and then developing them and after like 4 years he'd step back completely and hand over the reigns.

People were skeptical of Long. He's a heck of a nice guy. Great reputation.
But I think the Okie connection alienated some. Understandably.

The wise move would have been to negotiate it. He liked us, and we could have benefited. Instead we sort of just circled the wagons a bit more.

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"a guy fresh from a sales job in the Sheet music industry" Funny - but lets remember it was Stanton who stayed on Kim Mulkey until she agreed to a contract and it was Sloan who brought BU out of the archaic "we will build it when we have the money" to lets build it now that has put Baylor facilities in the condition they are now.

blueeyedbear said:

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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

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atomicblast said:

---

How come he never came here to coach?

---

So he pitched a sort of unique approach that few wanted to risk.

I thought it was brilliant, I loved it, but keep in mind the key point, we had Robert Sloan as President and a guy fresh from a sales job in the sheet music industry as Athletic Director. To say they were unqualified and inexperienced would be....an understatement.

Hayden called and made his pitch, to Robert "Jet Powered Golf Cart" Sloan.

The key that was a bit off for all parties was he wanted to train Chuck Long to take over as head coach, but that his role was going to sort of be 'administrative.' Meaning he was going to be delegating a lot to assistants and then developing them and after like 4 years he'd step back completely and hand over the reigns.

People were skeptical of Long. He's a heck of a nice guy. Great reputation.
But I think the Okie connection alienated some. Understandably.

The wise move would have been to negotiate it. He liked us, and we could have benefited. Instead we sort of just circled the wagons a bit more.

---

"a guy fresh from a sales job in the Sheet music industry" Funny - but lets remember it was Stanton who stayed on Kim Mulkey until she agreed to a contract and it was Sloan who brought BU out of the archaic "we will build it when we have the money" to lets build it now that has put Baylor facilities in the condition they are now.

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I'll agree with you about Stanton. Even while ribbon clerk Ian held the position, Kim referred to Stanton as "my AD". Tom also raised more money for Baylor than any person in history. His downfall was his hiring of football coaches. The board of regents overrode his recommendations for hiring Roberts and Steele.

As for Sloan, he put Baylor deeper in debt than any person in history.

If true that Stanton did not get to hire the head football coaches during his tenure as AD, then hiring football coaches was not really his downfall. That all said I dont know if that is true but if so it shows just how totally dysfuntional Baylor was. Not saying there are not still remnants of that dysfuntion in Baylor's DNA now. But good God if that is true, it makes the BOR of 16 look somewhat functional.

I was a freshman at Baylor 1960 and tried out for the freshman football team. During the two weeks of workouts with no pads, Hayden stopped by to watch us (he was defensive backs coach for the varsity). He talked to me briefly one day asking what school I went to, etc. I found out he went to Odessa and I was at the tri-county foster home for a brief while before going to an orphanage in Dallas. That cemented a brief relationship during the rest of the tryouts. He was interested in my being a defensive back because I was too small to play center or linebacker for Baylor. I had suffered 2 concussions my senior year and my coach sent a note to Catish letting him know I wasn't supposed to play. Hayden sat in with Catfish when they delivered the news that I couldn't continue football. After the meeting, Hayden walked out with me, arm around my shoulder, and told me that God had other plans for me, and this was just God's way of closing a door. I always remembered Hayden for that.
However at the end of that year, he moved to Arkansas to coach with Frank Broyles. I missed Hayden at Baylor but was proud of his accomplishments until his death. Hayden was one of a kind, and too bad there aren't more coaches like him.

Great story. Thanks for sharing

Hayden was probably one of the finest practice field QBs ever. His QB expertise did not translate well to Saturday afternoon, and sitting behind him in second place was Larry Isbell, destined to be Baylor's first All American QB. Hayden started the first game up in Wyoming, then gave way to Isbell.

He was a great gentleman, even then. He treated a spindly legged freshman basketball player like an equal, something that I have always remembered. He had been an All State QB on a state championship Odessa HS team that defeated San Antonio Jefferson in the final game. Jefferson had Kyle Rote and several other college bound players, but Odessa was better in the trenches. They featured Byron Townsend at running back, and he went on to a good career at Texas, though not even close to the SMU career of Rote, the worthy heir apparent to Doak Walker.