Happy 84th Birthday to Legendary UNT / Iowa Coach Fry

Green59 · February 28, 2013

To all you Hayden Fry fans, here is a long but interesting interview this week....A little over half way down Fry talks about the disappointment of North Texas not getting invited to any bowl games even though they had consecutive 7,8,9 and 10 win seasons and also Willie Nelson making a contribution to North Texas.

http://hawkcentral.com/2013/02/28/catch-up-with-iowa-legend-hayden-fry-as-he-turns-84/

KRAM1 · February 28, 2013

That is pure greatness! I went to the concert where Willie played and then was at "the ranch" for the after party. The ranch he is talking about belonged to Rex Cauble.

I also recall listening to that Tennessee game on the radio that Fry mentioned...sure as heck wish i had been there in person to see it. I was listening on the car radio and as the game ended was driving into my driveway at home...I parked that car and got out jumping and shouting for probably 5 minutes...then I started to wonder if the neighbors might be looking and calmed down a bit. I imagine that most Mean green fans know where they were the day UNT beat Tennessee...talk about a signature win! Greatness.

Thanks so much, Green59, for finding and posting this interview! Greatness...pure Greatness!

Mean Green 93-98 · February 28, 2013

I had four consecutive winning teams after I took over at North Texas. They hadn’t had a winning season in 12 to 14 years.

we’d even upset Tennessee, who was No. 5 in the nation.

It's funny how time can exaggerate memories.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Mean Green 93-98

DeepGreen · February 28, 2013

"HF: He was the main reason I took the job at Iowa. Plus the fact that I had four consecutive winning teams after I took over at North Texas. They hadn’t had a winning season in 12 to 14 years."

Not so sure that's an accurate statement.

KRAM1 · February 28, 2013

Fry never let a few facts get in the way of a great story...just part of the Fry mystique...much like Dandy Don.

Green59 · February 28, 2013

I liked the pregame Michigan game story where Hayden switches the guards and centers around in warmups. The punt snaps are obviously terrible. Michigan's Bo Schembecher says to Hayden,"Your not going to let that guy snap in the game, are you?" Hayden says, "We don't plan on punting tonight" and walked away.

letsgiveacheer · February 28, 2013

Yes, he was a great coach by any standard. But there is a fine line between being a raconteur and something else and Fry often crosses this line even when he was young. In this interview, there are so many incorrect statements it is hard to know where to begin.

The Mustang story is something he has told time and time again but he is the only one who does so. Ford has another version and Fry never comes into play. Tennessee was not ranked number 5 at the time of our game with them. He did not have winning records immediately after coming to North Texas. Rust had three years of losing seasons but prior to then, he had some really excellent seasons, going 8-2 several years if I recall.

There are some other whoppers Fry has often told like raising all the money for the Super Pit. The story about him painting the visitor's locker room pink is true.

What is also true is that he was probably the greatest coach North Texas ever had and maybe ever will have. It's a pity that the younger fans never had the opportunity to see a Fry coached North Texas team. They were something!

GrayEagle · February 28, 2013

"HF: He was the main reason I took the job at Iowa. Plus the fact that I had four consecutive winning teams after I took over at North Texas. They hadn’t had a winning season in 12 to 14 years."

Not so sure that's an accurate statement.

Actually, they hadn't had a winning season in three years prior to Hayden. Before that, they had won 8 games twice and 7 games twice and that was with 10 game schedules. So no, it was not an accurate statement.

Neither was Tennessee #5 in the nation when he beat them and several of his other stories have some distorted facts but that's Hayden. He could (and still can) spin a story with the best of them. Some have questioned the Willie Nelson tale but he has told it so many times that I believe that the premise was factual.

I remember my last time speaking to him. He was back on campus for some event and when I ran into him I said, "Dang, Hayden you look better than you did when you were here." He looked at me and said, "Well, I'm not under as much pressure." That's the kind of man that he is and I wouldn't trade my memories of his coaching here for any other... bar none.

Happy birthday, Hayden!

untjim1995 · February 28, 2013

I really started following North Texas in 1990--I had known Corky Nelson was a good coach, but I never followed 1-aa football, so that was all I knew about him. Of course, as I started following UNT, Corky got fired and was replaced by Dennis Parker. In other words, since 1991, I've seen Dennis Parker go 11-21-1 while being completely over his head as a college coach. Then in 1994 we hired a pretty smart assistant coach in Matt Simon, but his paranoia and the university's lack of support for athletics really took the wind out of his sails, as he started off strong, but ended up with an 18-26-1 record. Probably could've become a great coach with more help, but its very telling that he never became a head coach at any level in college ever again. In 1998, we hired Darrell Dickey, who just finished as the OC at SMUs one winning football team (6-5) in between the Death Penalty and June Jones. Some highlights included 4 SBC conference championships and OOC wins over Tech, Baylor, Cincinatti, and SMU, but we usually got our butts handed to us in OOC games against teams we had heard of, as well as putrid efforts against OOC opponents we had never heard of in South Florida and Florida Atlantic. Once other SBC teams caught up to us, it was over for Dickey, and for pretty much North Texas Football since then. HIs overall record from 1998-2006 was 42-64. Dodge follows with his awesome 8-40 record in his 4 years here, which includes a 2-3 record by Chico Canales as head coach.

Now, McCarney has run up a 9-15 record so far in two seasons, but has given us reasons to believe that we might be a path toward becoming a winner again. Whether that happens or not will be seen, but Fry's record at UNT of 38-25-3, with wins over Tennessee, SMU, Houston, Oklahoma State, and a ranked San Diego State, if translated into anything similar over the last 15 years would have had us playing in CUSA version 1.0 or 2.0, not SBCUSA, at the bare minimum. People think of Bill Snyder at K-State for great rebuilding jobs, but he obviously learned alot from Hayden Fry--and I think we all realize now that in the modern age of college football, since integration and scholarship reductions (basically since 1970), Fry's overall record here should very well go down as one of the best coaching jobs in the history of college football. He took over for a program that had won 7 games and lost 26 in its three previous years before he got here and it had just survived a vote from the student body to be dropped altogether. To put it all into perspective, if you took every coach, sans Fry, since 1970, they all combined to produce a cumulative record of 90-187 at the I-A (FBS) level, for a .325 winning pct. That list covers 24 years of FBS (I-A) and includes three seasons of Rod Rust, two seasons of Jerry Moore, 1 season of Bob Tyler, one season of Corky in 1982 as the last year before 1-aa, three years of Simon as a I-A coach, 8 years of Dickey, 4 years of Dodge and Chico, and now two years of Coach Mac. What Hayden Fry did here in Denton is truly unbelievable, given the circumstances and the histroy here. And how that fact has seemingly been given no press here in the DFW area is just a crime.

Edited February 28, 2013 by untjim1995