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Hayden Fry story

iowajerms

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By Mike Hlas

With FRY fest approaching Friday in Coralville, I’m sharing a few of my favorite Hayden Fry stories from his time as Iowa’s football coach.

I wasn’t at the Metrodome in Minneapolis for the 1982 Iowa-Minnesota game, and I was barely started in this business. But oh, how I’d have loved to seen and heard this:

Apparently, Gophers Coach Joe Salem had openly shown contempt for Iowa. It had been reported that Salem dressed in similar bib overalls at practices leading up to the Iowa game.

Minnesota had a four-game winning streak over the Hawkeyes entering the game, and was 3-0 against Fry. But the Hawkeyes won, 21-16, and then Fry had a postgame surprise. He changed out of his typical game attire of a black jacket and white pants, and emerged for interviews wearing a red flannel shirt, a white cowboy hat trimmed with a red bandana, and blue bib overalls of his own.

“All you great Minnesota writers, radio people and TV,” Fry said, “I didn’t want you to look like liars, so I’ve got my clod clothes on.”

“We’re taking Floyd (of Rosedale) home where he belongs — Soooo-ey!!!”

Can you imagine a coach pulling an antic like that today, with the saturation coverage of everything and anything that’s provocative? I often wonder how Fry would have fared in the YouTube/New Media era. It might have made him crazy. Or it might have made him a national star.

Salem’s team went 3-8 that season, 1-10 the following year, and he was dismissed. Fry stayed on at Iowa until he retired following the 1998 season.

Overalls seemed to stick out in Fry’s mind. I’ve heard him tell this story 10 times if I’ve heard it once:

“I had a special guy about 20 rows up behind my (Kinnick Stadium) bench, about 6′ 4″, 300 pounds, bib overalls, straw hat, and he’d cup his hands around his mouth and yell ‘Fry, you dummy!’ In all probability, he’s never had a jock strap on in his life.”

FRY fest Week: When Hayden wore ?clod clothes? | TheGazette

fry-e1377618115794-768x1024.jpg
 

Clemenza

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Great, great man......really loved his teams and the way he conducted himself on and off the field. That is a good story, I'm sure there are dozens more just like this. My guess is that the media would love him nowadays since everyone is so plain vanilla, Ferentz being one of them. The media is starved for personalities and not the "We've got to keep improving" nonsense that everyone seems to spew in today's game.
 

gengljer

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At one of the I-Club banquets, my Hayden Fry story as told by him. Back when Iowa played Michigan, #1 vs #2. Iowa had a very crappy punter that year. In pre-game warm ups, Bo went over to Hayden and said, "Your punter doesn't look very good. You better find a backup real quick". Hayden replied, "I don't plan on punting on 4th down, and I didn't. We went for it on 4th down every time and ended up winning the game". Love it....
 

iowajerms

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I know there was somebody on here or the ESPN board, it wasn't an Iowa fan, a story of Fry when the Hawkeyes were just getting killed at halftime and the reporter goes up to him and asks how Iowa was going to come back? Hayden Fry responds "Yeah, we have them right where we want them."

Obviously, I don't remember the details and if someone does know the details, correct me.
 

iowajerms

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iowajerms

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Great, great man......really loved his teams and the way he conducted himself on and off the field. That is a good story, I'm sure there are dozens more just like this. My guess is that the media would love him nowadays since everyone is so plain vanilla, Ferentz being one of them. The media is starved for personalities and not the "We've got to keep improving" nonsense that everyone seems to spew in today's game.

:lol:

Yeah. KF definitely did not pick up his media handling skills from Hayden Fry. He got his skills on that from Belichick.
 
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