Hayden Fry
Hayden Fry arrived in Iowa in 1978 with a Texas accent, a collection of folksy adages and an uncanny ability of rebuilding downtrodden football programs with an offense that was ahead of its time.
By the time Fry left the University of Iowa 20 years later, he had turned one of the Big Ten’s worst programs into one of the best, he had become one of Iowa’s most popular figures, and he had done enough that the community would later name a festival and a street in his honor.
Fry changed how Iowa football was perceived when he came from North Texas and inherited a program mired in a 19-year rut without a winning season. He changed Iowa’s uniforms, modeling them after the Pittsburgh Steelers, the dominant NFL team of the era. He hired a marketing group that created the Tigerhawk logo. He demanded success.
The square-jawed former Marine who studied psychology at Baylor, broke the grip Michigan and Ohio State had on the Big Ten title when he led the Hawkeyes to the conference title in his third season. Fry guided Iowa to eight consecutive bowl games — 14 in all — and three appearances in the Rose Bowl.
He introduced a wide-open passing attack to the league that thrived on “exotics” — Fry’s term for trick plays — and taking what a defense allowed, or, as Fry put it, “scratch where it itches.” He compiled a 143-89-6 record in 20 seasons before retiring in 1998.
Fry was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003. Last fall, Coralville celebrated Fry’s career at Iowa with the first annual FRYfest and renamed First Avenue Hayden Fry Way.