RIP Coach

[47of74]

Hayden Fry has gone to the big gridiron in the sky

One of the most important figures in University of Iowa athletics history, as well as college football overall, has passed away, according to multiple sources.

Hayden Fry, who was the head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team from 1979 to 1998, has died. He was 90 years old.

Fry had health issues at various stages of his life, including prostate cancer in the late 1990s, for which he successfully received treatment. His family said that he passed away after a renewed long battle with cancer.

"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," Fry's family said, in a statement.

[VarryOn]

1. He was a good man...

Cant say that about many, but you can about him!

[SharonClark]

2. He was a sexist who supported rethugs.

No evidence he was a good man.

[rurallib]

3. Republican, yes. Don't know about the sexism. But he did a lot of good for the community

and the state of Iowa.
His support for farmers was a great psychological lift for farmers.

His athletes were good citizens. And believe me, hanging around Iowa City when the football team is winning is much better that when they are losing.

Rest In Peace, Coach Fry.

See story below of Fry integrating the old Southwestern conference.

[rurallib]

4. One of my favorite stories about Fry was from his SMU days

{BTW - did you know that Lee Iacocca named his new car after the SMU Mustangs? He so liked the way Fry's team ran the ball he thought Mustang would capture the idea of the car}

Fry integrated the old Southwestern Conference with a running back named Jerry Levias. Before the first game Levias was scared that he would be a huge target because of his skin color. He went to Fry with his concern. Fry suggested giving him a different number. Levias bought it. Thus the Southwestern Conference was integrated.

That was a story Jim Zabel used to tell. Hope I got it right. Most of it is true, anyway.

[rsdsharp]

5. Loved Coach Fry.

I knew he was going to turn the program around when he threatened to punch any player in the mouth if he caught them smiling after a 21-6 loss to Oklahoma in 1979. He wasn't willing to settle for moral victories.

Couldn't stand Zabel. Or as he billed himself: "JimZabelthehomeandawayvoiceoftheIowaHawkeyes! IloveitIloveitIloveit!"

He was brought in as a speaker when I was at Iowa's Boy's State in 1971. He spent an hour and a half mostly talking about Iowa football and basketball plays that had occurred before any of us were born. He also used to hang out at Christophers Restaurant in Des Moines. People would come in, recognize him, and he would join them for dinner -- perfect strangers. Then he's stick them with the check.

[rurallib]

6. Zabel - what he described and what actually happened were often 2 different things

[rsdsharp]

7. If you ever watched an Iowa football game on TV

while listening to Zabel on the radio, he was usually a full play behind what was actually happening on the field.

For some reason, Iowa loves bad sportscasters. Zabel, Bob Brooks (who apparently thought the Michigan team's name was the "wolves&quot and the worst of all, Frosty Mitchell. Mitchell -- who was also Bob Ray's first campaign manager -- once interviewed Ray, his wife and daughter at halftime of a high school basketball championship game. It went like this:

"I'm talking with Governor Bob Ray, his lovely wife Billie, and their oldest daughter Randi. Randi is 13 and in the 8th grade. Tell me Randi, how old are you?"

[rurallib]

8. Remember Tait Cummings? He was bad but fun to listen to

I pretty much quit listening to games on the radio when Iowa and lear network hired Dolphin. Something about that guy that just turns me off.

[rsdsharp]

9. I do remember him, but as the sports guy on WMT in Cedar Rapids, not from doing games.

I grew up in NE Iowa, between two TV markets: Mason City, Austin, MN, and Rochester, MN, as well as Waterloo, Cedar Rapids. We mostly watched KGLO in Mason City, or KWWL in Waterloo for news, but we did sometimes watch WMT, too.

I rarely listen to Dolphin, although virtually anyone is better than Zabel for my money.