Fry won 143 football games and the hearts of thousands of Iowa football fans in his 20 seasons, retiring in 1998 while fighting cancer.
Hayden Fry brought a Texas-sized personality and a keen desire to win to the Iowa football program. He redesigned the uniforms, painted the visiting locker room pink and doled out wry witticisms in his southern drawl.
“Fans saw greatness,” said current Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who joined Fry’s staff in 1981. “He was a great coach and a great person, who through his folksy ways and little sayings captivated a state for 20 years.”Iowa endured 17 consecutive non-winning seasons before Fry’s arrival. He brought the Hawkeyes to three Rose Bowls.
“I looked at film when I first took the job, and what I saw was a bunch of teams that liked to run the ball,” Fry said. “Being an old quarterback, I knew that it’d take a while for Big Ten defenses to catch up to us.” Iowa moved among the league’s elite in 1981, winning the Big Ten title and earning its first Rose Bowl trip in 23 years.“Bringing Hayden in was a breath of fresh air,” former Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke once said. “As a conference, at times our personality was a little stuffy. Hayden brought his Texas humor, tales and one-liners. He brought a passing game that changed the course of our games.”
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