John Hayden Fry (February 28, 1929 – December 17, 2019) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1962 to 1972, North Texas State University—now known as the University of North Texas—from 1973 to 1978, and the University of Iowa from 1979 to 1998, compiling a career coaching record of 232–178–10. Fry played in college at Baylor University. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2003.
Born in Eastland, Texas, Hayden Fry was descended from one of the Texas First Families; his great-great-grandfather fought beside General Sam Houston in the Texas War of Independence against Santa Anna in the battle of San Jacinto and in the Mexican War. Fry's family moved to Odessa, Texas, when he was in third grade. At age 14, Fry lost his father to a heart attack, and family friends observed that Fry transformed from a shy child to the head of his household. His mother worked at a movie theater, while Fry worked at oil fields during summers.
At Odessa High School, Fry earned all-state honors as quarterback and led the team to the Texas state high school championship in 1946.
Fry then played at Baylor University from 1947 to 1950. Baylor had a 26–13–2 record during Fry's four years there. Fry started a few games as an upperclassman at Baylor, but he could never win the full-time starting quarterback job. He graduated from Baylor with a degree in psychology in 1951.
Fry was an American history teacher and assistant football coach at Odessa High School for a year in 1951 before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952. During his time in Odessa, Fry met and befriended a young George H. W. Bush, who would become the 41st President of the United States.
Fry served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1952 to 1955. He played with the Quantico Marines football team in 1953, winning the Marine Corps championship and playing in the Poinsettia Bowl. Fry also coached a six-man football team while in the Marines, and the unique style of play allowed Fry to innovate and invent new creative schemes. He became friends with Al Davis, who was coaching a rival military team; Davis would later become famous as the owner of the Oakland Raiders. Fry's time coaching and serving in the Marines were an asset as he began his coaching career. Fry was discharged from the Marines in February 1955 with the rank of captain.
High school and assistant coach
In 1955, Hayden returned to Odessa as a teacher and assistant football coach. The following season, Odessa head coach and former Texas A&M freshmen coach Cooper Robbins was promoted to athletic director, and Hayden Fry took his first head coaching job. At 26 years old, he was coaching the high school he had led to the state title less than 10 years earlier.
He served as Odessa's head football coach for three years. During that time, he first met and befriended the head coach at Texas A&M, Bear Bryant. Fry also continued as a history teacher at Odessa.
After the 1958 season, the new head football coach at Baylor John Bridgers hired Hayden Fry as an assistant coach. Fry spent two years at Baylor coaching the defensive backs. In 1960, Baylor had an 8–2 record in the regular season and finished the year with a one-point loss to Florida in the 1960 Gator Bowl. That season, Fry's defensive secondary helped Baylor lead the nation in pass defense.
Fry left Baylor to become an assistant coach at Arkansas under Frank Broyles. Broyles had been Fry's position coach when Fry played at Baylor. Fry was the offensive backfield coach at Arkansas in 1961. Arkansas won the Southwest Conference co-championship with an 8–2 record and narrowly lost the 1962 Sugar Bowl to Bear Bryant's Alabama squad. After one year at Arkansas, Southern Methodist University tabbed Fry as their next head football coach for the 1962 season.
Tenure at SMU and North Texas State
The SMU Mustangs were members of the Southwest Conference at the time. Fry won the conference coach of the year award in his first season. In 1963, SMU opened the season with a 27–16 loss to a Michigan team coached by Bump Elliott, Fry's future boss at Iowa. SMU lost to Oregon in the 1963 Sun Bowl, 21–14. After the season, Fry was also appointed as SMU's athletic director.
Jerry LeVias had many other scholarship offers to good integrated schools, but he chose to attend SMU. LeVias became the first black player signed to a football scholarship in the Southwest Conference. In 1966, LeVias made his debut, one week after John Hill Westbrook of Baylor became the first black player to play for a conference team. Fry received abuse for recruiting a black player to SMU in the form of hate mail and threatening phone calls, but he downplayed the treatment, because the harassment of LeVias was much, much worse.
SMU had an 8–2 record in 1966 and won its first Southwest Conference title in 18 years. LeVias was named to the all-conference team and handled the racial incidents well. SMU lost in the Cotton Bowl Classic to Georgia but finished the year ranked No. 10 in the nation. SMU had a down year in 1967, but LeVias was again an all-conference selection.
In 1968, SMU went 7–3 and defeated Oklahoma in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. LeVias was selected as an all-conference player as a senior for the third time. Fry's Mustangs then had just a 12–20 record over the next three years, from 1969 to 1971. That put Fry's job in jeopardy, and rumors started to swirl after Fry's Mustangs started the 1972 season at 4–4. Not even a three-game winning streak could save Fry. After a 7–4 season in 1972, Fry was fired at SMU, which robbed the Mustangs of a bowl berth.
Hayden Fry compiled a 49–66–1 record in 11 seasons at SMU, including the school's only three winning seasons since the late 1940s. In Fry's autobiography, Fry stated that he believed his firing was related to several boosters' desire to start a slush fund to pay players and recruits. SMU was the second-smallest school in the Southwest Conference, and had found it difficult to compete over the last two decades against schools double its size or more. When he refused to go along with the plan, Fry said, the boosters pressured the school's new president to fire him. As it turned out, SMU would be hit with NCAA sanctions five times after Fry's departure before having its program completely shut down for the 1987 season due to a massive litany of misconduct. Most of the violations were related to the slush fund Fry had opposed several years earlier.
Hayden Fry was hired as the coach and athletic director at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) before the 1973 season. North Texas appeared to be on the verge of dropping from Division I football or even ending the sport altogether. In 1973, North Texas won a share of the Missouri Valley Conference title. However, North Texas left the conference after the year in hopes of joining a more football-oriented conference. While Fry was there, North Texas never did. He also coached three of his sons while at North Texas.