FanHouse Hayden Fry

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Which never goes over well with the press. Note the editorial demanding the grizzled Iowa coach take the heat or get out of the kitchen. You know the dance, coach wants the media to "play it straight", media wants to razz the coach or program. I just want to know who still wears those dark indoor glasses.

One of my favorite high school teachers had a Hayden Fry poster in the classroom and made everyone in class know who he was and the history behind the man. Mind you this was in California. And none of my classmates cared about college football. Or Iowa. Or middle aged men with lockjaw scowls on posters. But darned if he didn't love that man.

Enter "Bergwood" AKA Andrew Hawtrey. From an interview with Sports Illustrated On Campus:

SIOC: So I'll ask the obvious: If you're stopping your real life car in traffic to touch a college football icon, who is it?

Andrew Hawtrey: Hayden Fry!And let me tell you why. He is the man that brought winning to Iowa after 19 straight years of losing seasons. Three Big Ten titles, three Rose Bowl appearances and 14 bowl games. And let's not forget painting the visiting team locker rooms pink because it's a calming color and his use of plays he called "exotics". (When you say "exotics" you must use a Texas accent to get the full effect.) He is in the College Football Hall of Fame and while at SMU he was the first coach to integrate the Southeast Conference. I almost forgot about all the current and past head coaches that coach Fry had as assistant coaches or players. Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Mike Stoops (Arizona), Bill Snyder(Kansas State), Barry Alvarez (Wisconsin), Bret Bielema (Wisconsin), Dan McCarney (Iowa State), Chuck Long (San Diego State), Jim Leavitt (South Florida) and Bo Pelini (Nebraska). I would be honored to touch all of them, and if I get my chance I will!

Coach Hayden Fry is my college football God and I bow at his alter. I would be breathless if I were even able to get close enough to touch him. I am so jazzed right now talking about coach Fry so much I'm going to go kick some field goals and imagine myself being Rob Houghtlin winning the 1985 Michigan game with two seconds left on the clock.

If that wasn't a breathless response I don't know what is. Now's a good time to mention "Bergwood" grew up -- according to SIOC -- directly across the street from Iowa's Kinnick Stadium. We'll give him the homer pass.

Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles is expected to step down this week. His departure is yet another symbol of the passing of one of college football's greatest generations, the great coaches who presided over the game from 1960 or so until the mid to late 1970's. Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958 to 1976 helping them win a championship and competing nationally in a great era against powers like Alabama, USC, Notre Dame and Michigan.

Another giant of his time has left us in the mortal sense: Bo Schembechler. Schembechler coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989 becoming the face of the program until his death just before the Michigan/Ohio State game last year.

The only giants of that era still with us are Broyles, former Texas coach Darrell Royal (1957-1976) and former Notre Dame coach Ara Paraseghian (1964-1974).

Among the magnificent but dead is Alabama's Bear Bryant (1958-1982) who retired at the end of the 1982 season and promptly checked out of mortal existence. Ohio State's Woody Hayes (1951-1978) hung around until his death in 1987. Nebraska's Bob Devaney (1962-1972) checked out in 1997 and USC's comedic John McKay (1960-1975) lasted a little longer, passing away in 2001.

All those giants left the coaching ranks long ago, but each stewarded elite programs for a decade or more. To this day most of them remain the standard for which current coaches aspire to at each of their programs. Schembechler's death and Broyles' departure signal the end of their collective direct involvement in the college game.

As that great generation fades further into memory we must now also begin to take stock of the succeeding generation of coaches. I'm talking about guys like Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, Tom Osborne, John Robinson, Vince Dooley, Don James, Hayden Fry, Pat Dye, Lou Holtz, Lavell Edwards and Barry Switzer here.

They are the ones who were the game's caretakes from the mid to late 1970's until the late 1980's, an era of great transition and upheaval due to parity measures such as scholarship limits, the completion of racial integration and the rapid and dramatic death of plodding, run-heavy conventional offenses such as USC's "Student Body Right/Student Body Left" approach.

We'll save that analysis for another day, another time. Until then it's one final embrace of perhaps college football's "greatest generation" of coaches. Thanks for the memories, fellas.