Black Heart Gold Pants - Remembering Hawkeye Legend Hayden FrySwelling with Iowa Hawkeye pride since 2007https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47511/bhgp-fave.png2019-12-19T09:45:00-06:00http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/rss/stream/207921132019-12-19T09:45:00-06:002019-12-19T09:45:00-06:00Without Kirk Ferentz, Hayden Fry’s Legacy Is History
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<figcaption>Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p><em>Everything established in 1979 carries on today in Iowa City</em></p> <p id="T5Vli9">In trying to rack my brain about a personal story I have about Hayden Fry, I come up blank. I certainly went to my fair share of Fry-coached Iowa games but I hardly remember any specific thing. The memories are much more broad. Perhaps the clearest one I have is sipping homemade hot chocolate in the end zone of the second of three straight losses against Northwestern in the mid-90s.</p>
<p id="mU8Gxz">Snow was falling.</p>
<p id="r51aEo">We left early.</p>
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<p id="3IVG3V">I was born in 1990 so I’m not lucky enough to have been around during Fry’s heyday and had to live vicariously through my Dad’s telling of his Iowa memories. They were certainly enjoyable (my favorite is my Dad listening to an Iowa/Illinois game during his Professional Engineer Exam) but there was, and is, no doubt a “you had to be there” quality to Hayden Fry, the teams he coached, and the stories he generated.</p>
<p id="qVVzhq">There are too many links to share in his remembrance and I’d be lying if I didn’t enjoy the heck out of them while holding back tears. But, I wasn’t there.</p>
<p id="voJ5bJ">Yet, without Kirk Ferentz as head coach these past 21 seasons, I can’t help but think that these memories of Hayden Fry wouldn’t be as enjoyable in their retelling, and reliving, because he has been the ultimate caretaker of the <a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/">Iowa Hawkeyes</a>.</p>
<p id="4PmU6Q">He has been willing to let Fry’s legacy live on in a way that feels truly unique. And truly Iowan.</p>
<p id="fg2OUa">I found <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/hawkeyes/iowa-football/hayden-fry-brought-the-sizzle-and-the-steak-to-iowa-20191217">Mike Hlas’s column</a> especially poignant because without the winning, all the quirks - the Tigerhawk, the Steeler uniforms, the pink locker room - are annoyances quickly dismissed. But Fry established that culture, and winning, in 1979 and it has carried on for 40 years. Not only in Iowa City, but Madison, Manhattan, and countless other cities and towns where his former coaches and players find themselves now.</p>
<p id="6MwV22">And without Ferentz, I can’t help but think that what Fry established would feel like history.</p>
<p id="OZVN6H">Kirk has kept the same Tiger Hawk, ANF decal, and uniforms, of course. But he also operates the program to the high standard Fry did. His remarks yesterday with the “news media” clarified that sentiment:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ferentz asked if he feels a responsibility to carry on Fry’s legacy. He answers: “Every day.” Chokes up for a third time during his remarks today</p>— MarkEmmert (@MarkEmmert) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkEmmert/status/1207379360497442816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2019</a>
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<p id="qGmTGx">Ferentz’s dedication and gratitude to Fry’s standard enables Iowa Football to be the high-level operation it is today. With college athletes, it is about more than the wins and losses. It’s about the lives impacted.</p>
<p id="g0yPFe">That much is clear with the stories told of Fry. We continue to see it with Kirk Ferentz.</p>
<p id="jnClvK">Because of that, Hayden Fry’s legacy will continue to be Iowa’s present. And future.</p>
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/12/19/21029042/without-kirk-ferentz-hayden-fry-legacy-is-history-iowa-hawkeyes-football-bhgpBoilerHawk2019-12-19T06:30:00-06:002019-12-19T06:30:00-06:00KIRK SPEAKS: Hayden Fry and Early Signing Day edition
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<p>It’s been quite a week for Iowa Hawkeyes fans. Let’s hear what Kirk Ferentz has to say about it, and the newest batch of Hawkeyes </p> <p id="WIJx2G">It has been a tremendously sad day for fans of the <a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/">Iowa Hawkeyes</a>. </p>
<p id="gTyL4i">As you all know by now, Hayden Fry passed away on December 17 at the age of 90 after complications with cancer. </p>
<p id="d79vAi">It feels like the world should stop turning. Time should stand still. But it can’t. Yesterday was the early signing day for football recruiting, and head coach Kirk Ferentz traveled to San Diego to take place in the opening press conference with USC head coach Clay Helton ahead of next week’s Holiday Bowl matchup against the Trojans. </p>
<p id="voUgAY">Nothing stops the day-to-day grind of the head coaching job for a Division I college football coach. Not even the death of a legend. And a legend he was indeed. Other people will have more, better written, things to say about Coach Fry than me. I’m not old enough to be cognizant of the glory days of Iowa football. All that I’ve known of Hayden Fry’s coaching I’ve read in articles, heard from other Iowa fans, including my dad, seeing in videos, and seeing in the ramifications he’s had on this program to this day. </p>
<p id="XbdqF0">It felt like Hayden was larger than life; a figure who undoubtedly changed the entire course of Iowa football and athletics history forever. And when someone has impacted a university like that, it also feels like they’ll <em>live </em>forever, too. I never thought this day would come, but here we are, with time moving on. </p>
<p id="4DCJFq">But I am just one of many voices trying to write and say something meaningful about the late coach. Kirk Ferentz owes part of his own Iowa legacy to Coach Fry, so let’s hear what he had to say on the matter before seeing what he had to say about signing day and the Holiday Bowl (some videos courtesy of Hawkeye Report below and then a normal press conference transcript breakdown to follow): </p>
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<p id="zNrnuj">We’ve seen Kirk get more emotional as the years have gone, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this choked up. But it makes sense. It’s clear, and it’s touching to see the impact Hayden had on Kirk and the entire program, and it’s certainly thought-provoking when thinking in the macro about the state of the program. </p>
<p id="nKnsXt">The most important part here? “We will honor Coach Fry. We will find a way.” He mentioned they will do something next week for the bowl game and next season “on a broader scale.” Hayden Fry Field at Kinnick Stadium? HELLO. </p>
<p id="ZmhfcY">Onto the the Holiday Bowl Press conference. Check out the full transcript <a href="http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=156033">here</a>. </p>
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<p id="uB29zz">KIRK FERENTZ: ...A long time defensive coordinator Bill Brashier on our staff, a fellow Texan, ... had a good way of saying things.</p>
<p id="9f6OCb">I remember whatever bowl we were going to one year, he goes, All bowls are good bowls, it’s just that some are better than others.</p>
<p id="YkBqgm">I think he was thinking about the Holiday Bowl because we had the opportunity to come back out here twice in the ‘80s. Iowa came back two years after I left. We had such a phenomenal experience. It’s been a long drought. We are extremely excited to be back.</p>
<p id="FcmhOJ">Rita Foley, Coach Fry’s assistant, my assistant 41 years now, she started working at age eight for the record (laughter), she made the comment this morning, This was always Hayden’s favorite bowl. He loved coming out here, loved everything about it. Maybe there’s some fate here involved ... </p>
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<p id="NumSk9">Certainly seems like it could be fate to me. A win confirms it, right? Right. </p>
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<p id="e0n6V3">KIRK FERENTZ: When we look at the film, they’ve got great players, very well-coached. We know we have a huge challenge on our hands. It’s going to take our absolute best.</p>
<p id="Gx4OOJ">We’re thrilled about every part of this, know we have a big challenge</p>
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<p id="Nfz3op">A big challenge indeed. Well-coached might depend on what sect of USC fan you’re talking to, but there’s no question that Clay Helton did manage to pull off a decent season with a lot of unforeseeable incidents. </p>
<p id="AergzW"><strong>Q. During the season I think there are three combined losses to ranked teams, came by an average about 4.7 points a game in those losses. As good as that defense has been, was that offense at the end of the year different than earlier in the year when they struggled a little bit? If so how?</strong></p>
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<p id="KryEfn">KIRK FERENTZ: I think we struggled a little bit more mid-season. Had some injuries. I know USC faced the same challenge ... </p>
<p id="LCCxER">I think most of our games, all of our losses have gone down to the last minute. But I quickly remind people, too, we have a lot of wins that have gone that way, too. We kind of live in a world of close football games. That’s been the nature of our program.</p>
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<p id="WdAz4u">A world of close football games, you say? No! </p>
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<p id="bluBQR"><strong>Q. You mentioned the long-term tenure. I didn’t realize until tonight Coach Ferentz has the longest tenured streak in the country of head coaches. Is it 21 years?</strong></p>
<p id="wIeIaz">KIRK FERENTZ: Yes ... Clay talked about our scores. If I had to live in a world with those 48-39 games, I don’t know if I’d last 10 years. Those games kill you. I remember we played Penn State in 1983, I think it was 42-38. It felt like we had been in a marathon. I hate those kind of games.</p>
<p id="aGz75m">Hopefully we’re not in one this week. I don’t know. With the way these guys move the ball and score, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.</p>
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<p id="8ZpGsA">High scoring games! The horrors! Watch Iowa win this game 52-48 or something. </p>
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<p id="NURPvo"><strong>Q. Talking a little bit about what Coach Helton went through this year on and off the field, you’ve seen a lot in your two decades at Iowa, you’ve had opportunities at the NFL level. How do you manage the highs and lows in football for that long? What is really the secret to navigating all of that?</strong></p>
<p id="pCeoKl">KIRK FERENTZ: I think Clay mentioned he grew up in a football family ... </p>
<p id="vZhE8k">I didn’t grow up in a football family necessarily, but I’ve had great mentors long the way. Probably two most notably would be Coach Fry, and <span>Joe Moore</span>, my high school coach ... </p>
<p id="0ZST0f">The longer you do this, the more you find out all you can do is all you can do. It’s true of anything in we do in life, whether raising a family, coaching football, you try to do the best preparing the people you work with, give them the tools to be successful. You hope you go out and do things the way you’re supposed to do. All you can do.</p>
<p id="qdP1Hh">Can’t dwell on consequences. Every day you waste worrying about what happened yesterday is a day you’re going to shut some opportunity out.</p>
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<p id="rrWypZ">Maybe we’ll be seeing Kirk Ferentz on the motivational speaker circuit after he retires someday? I’m inspired! </p>
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<p id="d8ndOf"><strong>Have the two of you crossed paths at any level? Is this the first time you have gotten together?</strong></p>
<p id="sSmn85">KIRK FERENTZ: I think I’m correct in saying the draft two years ago is probably the only time we met ... </p>
<p id="BEKL0N">We’re football guys. We kind of follow what’s going on.</p>
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<p id="yDqc51">FOOTBALL GUY ALERT! There’s no better way to end this blog post. </p>
<p id="8NWJ1u">Actually there is: rest in peace Hayden Fry and GO HAWKS. </p>
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https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/12/19/21029352/kirk-speaks-hayden-fry-and-early-signing-day-edition-ferentz-iowa-hawkeyes-signing-day-bhgpmattcabel2019-12-18T06:30:00-06:002019-12-18T06:30:00-06:00Hayden Fry Passes Away at 90
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<p>The University of Iowa loses a second legend in a week</p> <p id="TCKiF6">I didn’t know much about Hayden Fry when I first set foot on the University of Iowa campus. But I would learn. </p>
<p id="0mIqvv">I would learn about the pink locker room, and how Fry was one of the first coaches to openly embrace psychology while most of his peers dismissed science of the mind as hocus pocus. I would learn about how he wore white pants on game days so his quarterback could pick him out immediately on the sideline after throwing an interception. </p>
<p id="VLUy8b">I would learn about aviators and scratching where it itches and the Swarm. I would learn about the Tigerhawk and stand up tight ends and why Iowa wore basically the same uniforms as the Steelers. I learned about “I hope we didn’t hurt your boys too bad” and his inspiring a TV sitcom that lasted eight seasons long. </p>
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<p id="7Sk29T">I would learn about the image one could leave behind.</p>
<p id="y6189m">I would learn about Hayden Fry’s coaching tree, the one that includes Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez, Jay Norvell, Bo Pelini, Bret Bielema, Dan McCarney, Kirk Ferentz and all the Stoops brothers. I would learn that even before he became Big Ten football royalty, Fry was already a king in Texas. </p>
<p id="MnAWED">Long may he reign. </p>
<p id="6xm1in">I would learn that that Fry coached under Frank Broyles at Arkansas. He just needed one year in Fayetteville before he was offered his first head coaching job at SMU. There he integrated the Mustang football team, awarding a scholarship to a black player for the first time ever by a team in the Southwest Conference. The year was 1966. </p>
<p id="UopC56">I learned that when Bump Elliott hired Hayden Fry, Iowa’s athletic director told the football coach that he would be the last coach he’d hire at Iowa; that Fry would either be a long-term success, or that if Fry failed, it’d be the end of both them. </p>
<p id="8eieTR">With Elliott’s passing just over a week ago, Iowa has lost two of its Mount Rushmore figures in a matter of days. </p>
<p id="9kkZxW">I think the first thing I learned about Hayden Fry was what the ANF decals meant on Iowa’s helmets. I learned about the farming crisis of the 80’s, and how Fry, a farm boy himself, wanted to lift up Iowa’s farming communities during a time when crop prices plummeted and farmers were taking their own lives. </p>
<p id="oA8T3W">America needs farmers just as bad as it needs figures like Fry. </p>
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<p id="J2nNrk">I learned that Hayden Fry was more than just a football coach. I learned that he gave an entire state an identity and something to be proud of. Before Fry arrived in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes won 22 football games the combined 10 years prior. It took him four years to exceed that number, and just three to reach the Rose Bowl for the third time in program history. It would be his first of three trips to Pasadena. </p>
<p id="MgVWuw">With Hayden Fry, I learned about the impression one can leave on an entire community. I learned after meeting countless dogs, young children and goldfish named Hayden while in Iowa City. I learned about it after attending my first FRYfest, where I marched along Hayden Fry Way and did the Hokey Pokey with a bunch of strangers. </p>
<p id="F5sewm">And I think that’s kind of the point. Fry would probably call himself a teacher first and a football coach second. He taught history at his alma mater, Odessa High School while he coached the football team. He was the athletic director and football coach at SMU and North Texas State. </p>
<p id="EVIoFZ">Eventually, I learned about his battle with prostate cancer, and how he kept his radiation treatments a secret from the team and his coaches, entering the University hospital through the backdoor every morning to receive chemotherapy. I learned about his retirement to Mesquite, Nevada, to not only escape to warmer weather, but also mobs of adoring fans that would flock to his table while going out to dinner with his wife, Shirley. </p>
<p id="TlQae4">Through Fry, I learned about the impact of a life. I learned about legacy and humility. I learned what it meant to be a Hawkeye. </p>
<p id="2c8s6e">Rest in peace, Hayden Fry. </p>
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https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/12/18/21027421/hayden-fry-passes-away-at-90-iowa-football-coach-bhgpBenjaminRoss2019-09-12T13:00:00-05:002019-09-12T13:00:00-05:00Throwback Thursday: Revisiting Hawkeye Football History With The Director, 1979-1998
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<img alt="Old State Capitol of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J6bB_evZ8SOJF_FRUTY8KNKVhpk=/62x0:5356x3529/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65233791/144072930.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Iowa’s history is long and great. And it’s certainly entertaining. | Photo by: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>And with that, a legend was born.</p> <p id="5WeLyc"><em>It’s been nearly a decade since BHGP commenter The Director took to the FanPost to educate us all on some Hawkeye history - the good, the bad and the ugly. Over the next few weeks as we prepare for football season, we’ll be revisiting these history lessons as they truly are great reading. The following was originally posted on November 16th, 2010. You can read the original here: </em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2010/11/16/1818653/a-history-of-iowa-football-a-high-porch-picnic-or-tgif-man-1979-1998?_ga=2.97095775.1395286308.1568032565-1532844756.1565017992"><em>A History of Iowa Football PART VII: A High Porch Picnic, 1979-1998</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p id="P7mQLP"><em>All parts of this series can be found here:</em></p>
<p id="1LjN8i"><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/8/1/20731454/throw-back-thursday-revisiting-iowa-hawkeye-football-history-with-the-director-1889-1900-bhgp"><em><strong>Part One</strong></em></a><em><strong> | </strong></em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/8/8/20757670/throwback-thursday-revisiting-iowa-hawkeye-football-history-with-the-director-1900-1918-bhgp"><em><strong>Part Two</strong></em></a><em><strong> | </strong></em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/8/15/20806466/throwback-thursday-revisiting-iowa-hawkeye-football-history-with-a-the-director-1918-1939-bhgp"><em><strong>Part Three</strong></em></a><em><strong> | </strong></em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/8/22/20826385/throwback-thursday-revisiting-hawkeye-football-history-director-1939-1952-ironmen-nile-kinnick-bhgp"><em><strong>Part Four</strong></em></a><em><strong>| </strong></em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/8/28/20828061/throwback-thursday-iowa-hawkeye-football-history-director-1953-1968-forest-evashevski-bhgp"><em><strong>Part Five</strong></em></a><em><strong>| </strong></em><a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/9/5/20849724/throwback-thursday-revisiting-iowa-hawkeye-football-history-with-the-director-1969-1978-evy-bhgp"><em><strong>Part Six</strong></em></a></p>
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<p id="paragraph2">John Hayden Fry was Texas. A descendant of an original Texan family--including one relative who fought with Sam Houston--Fry epitimozed the Yellow Rose independent spirit as celebrated in films such as GIANT, THE ALAMO, and, in its own way, DAZED AND CONFUSED. (1) He was brash. He was bold. He did everything big and he did it with style (he wore shades in the day!). He did things his own way, and he didn’t give a flying intercourse what you thought of it. Because, in the end, he knew that you would <em>love</em> it</p>
<p id="paragraph3">As long as he won, that is. Everyone loves a winner. Everyone loves a cowboy. And everyone loves John Hayden Fry.</p>
<p id="paragraph4">The day they hired Hayden Fry, I remember thinking only one thing: this guy sounds NUTS! (2)</p>
<p id="paragraph5">They talked about his days as a Texas high school QB. How he and a few classmated allegedly flunked their senior year on purpose so they would get another shot at a state championship (which they won, by the way, proving that if you’re going to fuck the system, you might as well successfully conceive, right?). How he had been the first Southwest Conference coach to play a black player. How he had been fired by SMU--after taking them to a <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/cotton-bowl">Cotton Bowl</a>--because he wouldn’t tolerate an alumni slush fund. (3) How he had gone to North Texas State, and taken them to a dizzying height.</p>
<p id="paragraph6">Still, that’s not what got to me. What got to me was his manner. He had a <em>swagger, </em>like James Dean in GIANT after his well “came in.” When Fry went to the mic, he walked up there confident, drenched in crude oil fresh from the ground, his future secure, prospects bright as sun on a magnifying glass, and talked about <s>corn futures </s>WINNING. Fuck, no Iowa coach had talked about <s>corn futures</s> winning like Fry had since Evy! And Fry talked about it not as a theory, or as a proposition, but as a FACT. We....will....win.</p>
<p id="paragraph7"><em>Was this a joke?</em> some wondered. Did Fry know that we’d had 17 losing season in a row? That we’d won just a couple of games the year before? Had he seen the schedules for the next five years? Cripes, it was like Lazzeri, Cronin, Gehrig, Ruth, and Simmons all over again; only this time, instead of facing pitching-ace Carl Hubbell, they get to beat up on a Pee-Wee hurler! (4) This was a Murderers Row no one could survive! (look at the schedules if you don’t believe me: from 1979-1981 we played teams like Oklahoma, Nebraska, UCLA, and, of course, OSU, and Michigan).</p>
<p id="paragraph8">He was asked how he would do the impossible, how he would have this baby David defeat those many collegiate Goliaths. His answer was almost comical in its simplicity and quaintness:</p>
<p id="paragraph9">”<em>We’re gonna’ scratch where it itches.</em>”</p>
<p id="paragraph10">Chuckles. Nervous chuckles. Was he mad? Had he seen the players in person? Had he seen their forty times? “Scratch where it itches”? Can I have a few more details, please?</p>
<p id="paragraph11">”<em>We’re gonna’ play hard every game. We may run the Statue of Liberty play out of our own end zone!</em>”</p>
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<figcaption>You’re goddamn right.</figcaption>
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<p id="paragraph12">It was at this point that people were <s>lighting the bomb fuses </s>eyeing the door, awaiting the inevitable arrival of the ambulance and men in white outfits, a soon-to-be-applied strait-jacket in their hands. (5)</p>
<p id="paragraph13">The first game was against Indiana. At half, we were up by three touchdowns. It all seemed to good to be true! (It was). A frantic comeback by the Hoosiers left us ahead by just a few points late in the 4th quarter. A colleague of mine recalls what happened, and his voice gets tight and strained when he tells it: a defensive back (he recalls it was Mario Pace) blows a coverage and IU wins on a long pass play. In fact, he remembers it as if it were yesterday. (6)</p>
<p id="paragraph14">We scratched where it itched, but it was IU that drew blood that day. Still.....that first half was pretty sweet. Hadn’t seen an Iowa team play so well since, maybe, 1974 when they beat UCLA. Next week: powerhouse Oklahoma and Heisman candidate Billy Sims.</p>
<p id="paragraph15">Hmm. Maybe we got something here! In the second half, it’s only Oklahoma 14-6, and Sims has under 100 yards for the first time in...forever! Oklahoma scores one more time, and Sims gets a few meaningless late-game carries to get his century mark. But still--a moral victory, right? Oklahoma was ranked THIRD in that nation! Whereas we were probably pegged at THIRD from the BOTTOM! Hayden must be proud, right? What an effort!</p>
<p id="paragraph16">Cue the team bus. The players are slapping each other on the back, high fives all ‘round! Fuck, man, we gave the Sooners a run today, didn’t we? Sims BARELY got his hundred! Fry walks in, looks at the happy crowd of players. The difference between them, and him, is this: he doesn’t <em>care </em>what the score was, or how hard Sims fought to get his hundred. The Hawks lost. He is the LOSING coach.</p>
<p id="paragraph17">”Next guy to smile gets a punch in the mouth.”</p>
<p id="paragraph18">Silence. <em>Stunned</em> silence! Who IS this guy? they must’ve wondered. Didn’t he see how well we played? What’s going on? Who the hell IS this guy??</p>
<p id="paragraph19">Answer: a WINNER. And they got the message: the days of being a satisfied loser are fucking OVER, son.</p>
<p id="paragraph20">The rest of 1979 was rough in spots, that’s for sure. A climate can change with time, but it will change slowly: the next week, a three point loss to Nebraska. But then a convincing victory against Iowa State. And then wins against the Illini and Northwestern (by 58-6! When was the last time Iowa’d had a 52 point win? Answer: 1959) The season ends with a respectable 5-6 record, and a decent 4-4 in the <s>Big Two-Little Eight</s> Big Ten.</p>
<p id="paragraph21">We was just scratchin’ where it itched! And it was workin’, too!</p>
<p id="paragraph22">In 1980, the team took one step back to 4-7. But there was something there, in the air, every game. Didn’t matter what the final score was, when the team took the field, they thought they had a chance! Some they lost close--ISU 10-7--and some they lost big--Nebraska 57-0--and some they won big--MSU 41-0--but it was there. The confidence. The feeling that <em>it’s coming and it’s coming soon</em>.</p>
<p id="paragraph23">Now it’s 1981. The schedule is tough: Nebraska, ISU, and UCLA to start the year. First up, the Bugeaters. Sixty minutes later, the miracle: the Hawks are on top, 10-7. Pandemonium! Then again, some say, wait ‘till next week. ISU is tough these days. Next week comes and goes: Iowa 12, ISU 23. It was bound to happen! Always a let-down. With UCLA next, looks like a 1-2 start for sure.</p>
<p id="paragraph24">Nope. John Hayden Fry wouldn’t allow it! Next one to smile gets a punch in the mouth! When the dust had settled, with the aid of a blocked punt for a TD, Iowa had taken the Bruins to task, in a convincing 20-7 win. Wait a minute--is this happening? Could this be real? Next up, the ‘Cats of Evanston.</p>
<p id="paragraph25">They’d destroyed NW the year before by 52, but screw that, in 1981 we’re going to beat them by 64! Which they did. Indiana? No comebacks this time: 42-28, go to hell Hoosiers. Iowa is 4-1 for the first time since 1961. But next is Michigan, mighty Michigan, crusher of dreams and puny wanna-be programs.</p>
<p id="paragraph26">This game, unbelievably, was not televised. It was shown to a lucky few thousand in the Rec Building on the Iowa campus, on closed circuit TV. I was a freshman away at <s>a happy place called The Institute </s>college (7), and listened on the radio (Gene Claussen, of the Hawkeye Football Network). And when the plastic grass had settled in the Big House, Iowa had won on three Tom Nichol field goals, 9-7.</p>
<p id="paragraph27">This was uncharted territory! It’s only five weeks in, and the lowly Hawks have already beaten Michigan, Nebraska, and UCLA! After that win, we are ranked SIXTH in the nation!</p>
<p id="paragraph28">To an Iowa fan at the time, it was like you’d picked-up <s>syphilis </s>Roseanne Barr in a tavern, but as soon as she gets back to your dorm room she’s naked-hot <s>Clara Bow</s> <s>Rita Hayworth</s> <s>Bo Derek </s>Jessica Alba. Naked-hot Jessica Alba? (9) What the fuck are you doing here with me, little ole Iowa? (I’ve got Buddy Holly glasses and acne! I weigh 98 pounds, ‘cmon!!) Are you sure you aren’t supposed to be in the Michigan dorm room, or the Ohio State dorm room?</p>
<p id="paragraph29">Nope. She’s in the right place. Iowa dropped a couple games after that, but then closed out the year with convincing wins against Wisky, Purdue, and MSU. Still, the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/rose-bowl">Rose Bowl</a> wasn’t happening; unless, that is, OSU would beat favored Michigan, hated Michigan, dream-crusher Michigan. Hey, never bet against Art Schlichter! (10) A mad scramble for a late TD forces Michigan to cancel their Pasadena reservation and--hey, the Iowa game is still going on, random groups of people for reasons unknown start madly cheering, what’s happening, why are some people cheering?--an announcement is made in Kinnick: “From Columbus, Ohio, a final score: Ohio State 14, Michigan....”</p>
<p id="paragraph30">The sentence was never completed. CHAOS erupts in the stands. Cheering, crying, and roses litter the field. I’ve been at the greatest moment in Iowa history--Houghtlin’s kick--but I’d almost trade that to have been at this one. The Hawks are going to the alpaca-humping ROSE BOWL, man! The ped mall turns into the biggest, maddest insane asylum since Bedlam.</p>
<p id="paragraph31">Fry is elated: he is the winning coach against MSU. His Hawks are going to the Rose Bowl. But still, I bet he looked at the Spartan game-film and found things to piss him off. You can make a coach a winner, but you will never make him any less of a coach.</p>
<p id="paragraph32">Iowa loses the Rose Bowl, and badly. (8) It is an anti-climax; it’s impossible to follow one impossibility with another so soon. In a one-sided game, true freshman QB Chuck Long makes a brief appearance, and becomes the answer to a great trivia question. At the end of the game, Fry doesn’t seem unhappy: even he realizes there are limits to his expectations. Better yet, he’s already looking ahead to next season. What some people don’t realize, is that he’s done all this with mainly Commings players. He knows what--and who--is coming ahead. And he likes it.</p>
<p id="paragraph33">In 1982, he settles on that Long kid as QB. Odd, in that the lanky soph from Wheaton didn’t really throw many passes in high school, because as a slinger, he has it all: the vision, the savvy, the accuracy. The season of 1982 starts rocky as hell, with two straight losses, and many--myself included--start to wonder if we are sinking into the quicksand once again. But we win eight of the last ten, including a win against a <s>paid</s> good Tennessee team in the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/peach-bowl">Peach Bowl</a>.</p>
<p id="paragraph34">Life is becoming a “High Porch Picnic”: not only are we beating the Big Ten’s best, in 1983 we beat a very fine Penn State team in the best Iowa game nobody ever saw, in Happy Valley, 42-34. We beat Ohio St the very next week, 20-14, on a Long to Moritz 75 yard pass play. (11) Not satisfied with beating his opponent on the field, Fry has painted the visiting locker room pink. His reason? Pink is a “passive” color, often used in prisons and mental hospitals.</p>
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<p id="paragraph35">The real reason? Fry is Mr. #1 Lucky Mind-Fuck . Schembechler brings his Wolverines to town, and forces the grad assistants to paper over the pink. Fry laughs! He’s already won, you dumb-shit Wolverine assholes! He’d won the moment you bought the paper. In 1984, Iowa tars the Michiganders 26-0 in one of their worst defeats in decades. Iowa’s locker room may be Black and Gold, but its team is in the pink.</p>
<p id="paragraph36">Freedom Bowl, 1984. Iowa had a great team that year, but injuries to key players--Long and Harmon foremost--set them back, and they finish 7-4-1. Their bowl invite: something <s>ignorable </s>new called the Freedom Bowl, in Anaheim. They’re playing a superior Texas team that has TWO 1st Team All American defensive backs, a team that was a pre-season #1 before losing a couple in the regular season. No one gives the Hawks a chance. Long is rusty. Harmon is out with a busted <s>scooter</s> leg. The team is hungover from narrowly missing a Rose Bowl bid after dropping two close games to end the season.</p>
<p id="paragraph37">The night before the game, home from college over Christmas break, I go out with friends and drink about a hundred Long Island Ice Teas. (12) I wake up at about two in the afternoon. I go back to bed at four pm. I wake up again and, suffering from acute gastritis, eat a paltry supper. I remember the Iowa game is today, start to pick up the phone to see if any of my buds want to go downtown to watch it, but my stomach voices a loud objection, and I slink onto the floor, my back against a red reading-pillow, and turn on the TV.</p>
<p id="paragraph38">The game begins, it is raining. But Long is sharp, like he’s passing in a vacuum into which no rain can penetrate. TD pass to Hayes, TD pass to Flagg, and we’re up 14 in the first quarter. Todd Dodge of Texas throws a TD, but Iowa counters with a scoring run. Texas closes out the half with a TD and a field goal, and it’s 24-17 Iowa going into the break.</p>
<p id="paragraph39">And then the future. In the third quarter, Chuck Long comes into his own. If you went and made a grilled-cheese and came back again when it was done, you would’ve missed four TD passes by Long, passes he threw as easy as falling out of bed: Happel, Smith, Helverson, and Hayes.</p>
<p id="paragraph40">And that’s it! One minute it’s a game, and the next it’s Iowa 56-Texas 17, and I’m laughing! As Long threw that last TD pass to Jonathon Hayes I’m laughing my ass off! Is it because we’re winning, winning against a pretty darn good Texas team? Nope. It’s because I SEE THE FUTURE.</p>
<p id="paragraph41">Cut to Fall, 1985. I remember one thing about that season in Kinnick, and it’s this: it rained about-near every damn game. Long has come back, spurning the pros, the beneficiary of a rule that says his appearance in the 1981 Rose Bowl doesn’t count against his eligibility. Harmon is back <s>on his scooter.</s> Station is back. Mitchell is back. Like Otis on a weekend night in Mayberry, this team is loaded. We utterly destroy three teams in a row to start the year. MSU comes to town and shows a surprisingly good running attack (foreshadow). Down with under a minute left, Iowa faces a 4th and goal. I should add that we are ranked #1 in the nation now. Many of us wonder if that hasn’t jinxed us.</p>
<p id="paragraph42">Long takes the snap, fakes to the back on a dive play. He runs right as all eyes follow the ball-carrier into the line: is he going to make it? Are we still #1?</p>
<p id="paragraph43">All of a sudden, people in the stands are pointing and crying aloud, like they’ve just seen Godzilla rise from Tokyo Bay. <em>Fuck, what are they pointing act?</em> I wonder. Then I see it: Long raises his right arm into the air. HE’S GOT THE BALL.</p>
<p id="paragraph44">Long’s got the BALL! There’s no one within a mile of him as he runs around the right side of the line. He raises the ball in the air as he crosses the goal-line. Deafness ensues. Screaming ensues. An iconic moment is born.</p>
<p id="paragraph45">Crazy as this seems, that is but a prelude. Next week it’s the big one: #1 vs #2, Iowa vs Michigan. The week is one long cramp that won’t go away, as anticipation builds. As usual, it rains. A buddy and I stand in the north end zone at the top of the stairs to watch. It’s a frustrating game. Iowa clearly is the better team, and moves the ball, but circumstance and bad <s>calls </s>breaks deny us touchdowns: all we muster is three field goals. Deep in Iowa territory, trying to call signals over the screaming masses in Kinnick, Michigan QB Jim Harbaugh <s>blows</s> milks the officials and they quiet the crowd. The ploy works. With Kinnick now subdued, a nifty shovel pass scores for the Wolverines. Before you know it, it’s late in the 4th quarter and the Wolverines have the ball and the lead, 10-9.</p>
<p id="paragraph46">What happens next may be the loudest moment in Kinnick history. Iowa forces a third and three. The Musco lights are blazing, a drizzle of rain clouds the air. Between plays, the crowd chants: DEE-FENSE! DEE-FENSE! Between words, there is....<em>silence</em>. Actually, it’s not silence <em>per se</em>, because coming from somewhere--heaven? the wet skies above?--is the echo, <em>Dee-fense, Dee-fense</em>. Harbaugh hands off to Jamie Morris, the game is afoot, #1 vs #2, good vs evil, David vs Goliath, Spy vs Spy, King Kong vs Godzilla, Great Taste vs Less Filling....</p>
<p id="paragraph47">....and from nowhere, Larry Station bullets through the line and smothers Morris for a four yard loss. I won’t try and describe the sound that emanated from that stadium, but I was there when Dallas ran the 95 yards, and Sash pitched to Hyde, and Iowa picked off a pass to beat Michigan in 2003, and I don’t know if any of them were as loud as when Morris and the ball went crashing to the ground that day. (13)</p>
<p id="paragraph48">The rest is history. Long brings us downfield, with the aid of a pretty terrific run by Harmon. Houghtlin sets up the tee in the wrong place, only to be corrected by holder Mark Vlasic, and what might’ve been a blocked 28 yard attempt becomes legend at 29 yards.</p>
<p id="paragraph49">The ball lands about twenty feet in front of me and fifteen to my left. The cheering lasts minutes, and it’s “Dog-pile on Houghtlin!” (and yes, there were injuries). Fans spill onto the field as the band plays “In Heaven There Is No Beer.” I grab some nearby girl, and me and five thousand others do the polka right there on the field, laughing, crying, screaming in the mist. It may seem shallow or trite to say that such a moment could be the happiest of one’s life, but if you want me to be perfectly honest, that’s about as PERFECT a moment as I’ve ever experienced: dancing an awkward polka in the rain with a girl I’d never met, the scoreboard stuck on IOWA 12 MICHIGAN 10.</p>
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<p id="paragraph50">The rest of the season is immaterial. After you’ve slept with the girl of your dreams, why talk about the next morning? (14)</p>
<p id="paragraph51">Fry rolls along with the best group of assistant coaches in the nation: Snyder, who revolutionized Big Ten offenses, Brashier who directed a granite-nosed defense, and some guy from Pittsburgh who ran the O-line, name of Ferentz. With those guys, Hayden not only breaks an eventual nineteen-year streak of non-winning seasons, but rattles off NINE winning ones in a row.</p>
<p id="paragraph52">But success for some breeds success for others, and talent finds the exit soon enough: Bill Snyder goes to K-State where he turns water into wine. Alvarez goes to Notre Dame, and settles in Wisconsin, winning three Rose Bowls. Even O-line wiz Kirk Ferentz leaves, to become coach of the Maine Black <a href="https://www.windycitygridiron.com/">Bears</a>. (15) New assistants come, and the Hawks continue their run with the aid of a solid QB named <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/players/13384/matt-rodgers"><strong>Matt Rodgers</strong></a>: they go to the Rose Bowl in 1990, and go 10-1-1 with a Holiday Bowl tie in ‘91.</p>
<p id="paragraph53">But something isn’t quite the same. On a coaches’ cruise in the early 90’s, offensive line coach John O’Hara has a fatal heart attack. (16) After having star QB’s like Chuck Long and Matt Rodgers, recruited out-of-state, we seem stuck on starting Iowa prep QB’s from places like St Ansgar, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids. Not terrible QB’s, but not exactly Chuck Hartlileb-quality, not to mention Chuck Long-quality. We didn’t know it at the time, but a New Year’s Day spent in Pasadena would never come again.</p>
<p id="paragraph54">Still, three years would stand out: 1995-1997, the <span>Tim Dwight</span> years, the Tavian Banks years, the “if only!” years. Dwight was a comet on the field from the get-go. As a frosh, he blew up return men like Mentos jammed in a Coke. As a soph, he was a punt return phenom, a stutter-stepping dervish against the Gophers. As a junior, he was Superman as #6, a black and gold Red Grange against the Nittany <a href="https://www.prideofdetroit.com/">Lions</a> in a never-will-forget 21-20 win at Happy Valley. As for Tavian Banks, he saw time against Pac-10 Co-Champ Washington in the 1995 Sun Bowl, and with his smooth, gazelle-like stride had a 75-yard scamper to the Husky five yard line (there never was a more elegant runner). The next year, behind work-horse Sedrick Shaw, he showed sparks in relief. (17)</p>
<p id="paragraph55">Let’s talk about Shaw for a moment. The most under-rated Iowa running back in history, the guy had it all: moves, power, and drive. Watch his game against Texas Tech in the 1996 Alamo Bowl and prepare for a spit-take on your computer screen. If we had Shaw last year, we’re basically National Champ finalists. No lie. Maybe we’d lose to ‘Bama in that game, but we sure as hell woulda’ GOT there! Helluva’ player.</p>
<p id="paragraph56">Tavian in 1997 was a cut-back master, a thousand yards under his belt faster than any runner in D1 history. But then the troubles: the Iowa offense was all flash, no cash. The second half of that season was like playing six Indiana 2010 games all in a row. In the end, even with once-in-a-decade talents like Tavian and Timmy, the Hawks slumped forward into a desk chair, stone-cold dead, in a terrible performance in the 1997 Sun Bowl.</p>
<p id="paragraph57">There were already rumors that Fry was past his prime. His best assistants had moved on to other pastures. Recruiting had fallen. Nevertheless, many looked upon 1998 with anticipation, as we had some talent returning, such as All-American defensive end <span>Jared DeVries</span>, and ace return man and receiver Kahlil Hill.</p>
<p id="paragraph58">But when ISU scored to make the score 27-9 on September 12th, everyone knew something was up. After six games, we were only 3-3. That was to be the high point of a sad season. We dropped the last five to finish 3-8, the finale a pathetic display against Minnesota in Fry’s last game as Iowa coach, the losing coach in a 49-7 pasting. He might’ve punched someone in the mouth after that effort, if only he hadn’t been so tired and ready to go home. Later we found out that he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer that season, and had been receiving radiation treatments. But that didn’t matter: we’d felt badly for him all along. He certainly deserved a better going-away party than that fiasco in Minneapolis.</p>
<p id="paragraph59">But Hayden was resilient, and though he looked weary, he never asked for anyone’s sympathy. And now, I’d defy you to find a more beloved man by any fan-base, Paterno included. He’s got a street named after him in Coralville, and an annual day of celebration in his honor. Countless Iowa kids have been named <s>Fry</s> Hayden after the original “Ol’ Ball Coach.” (18) He may live in Vegas, but what he did in Iowa stayed in Iowa: he made Hawkeye football what it is today. And goddammit, I don’t care if he didn’t win a Rose Bowl (19), or had a few sub-par seasons, when I think of John Hayden Fry, I think of spinning around and around on that Kinnick turf with that girl in my arms, an idiot smile plastered on my face, the band playing in the background, the mist falling on my wide-eyed, win-drenched face.</p>
<p id="paragraph60">Yep, when I think of Hayden Fry, the scoreboard reads IOWA 12 MICHIGAN 10 and a High Porch Picnic awaits.</p>
<p id="WT2QF6"> </p>
<p id="paragraph62">Next week: Captain Kirk</p>
<p id="NHrJOb"> </p>
<p id="paragraph64">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p id="paragraph65">(1) DAZED AND CONFUSED is the best movie about high school since ever. Wooderson, Randall “Pink” Floyd, and stoner-crew are the best thing since a “sixer” of Lone Star beer and a party at the Moon Tower. If you haven’t seen it, Netflix it NOW.</p>
<p id="paragraph66">(2) He made quite an initial impression. When he first came here, his accent was thick as cold mud. He wore sunglasses all the time, a result of a sensitive eye condition he’d developed. He had funny sayings and homilies straight from a front porch rocking chair, and a laugh that could infect a monk. But deep down, as a coach, he was serious as cholera. I think his joking manner worked for him--I’m sure he was perpetually underestimated by the opposition as overly footloose and fancy-free.</p>
<p id="paragraph67">(3) Within fifteen years of leaving SMU, the Mustangs were drawn and quartered, and their program scattered across Dallas. They’re still struggling to resurrect it, twenty-plus years later. Apparently, having hookers (reputedly) in a nearby house for the players’ amusement accumulates bad karma.</p>
<p id="paragraph68">(4) <a href="https://www.bigblueview.com/">Giants</a> pitcher Carl Hubbell once struck out all those guys in a row in a Major League All-Star game (across two innings, of course) in the early thirties. While I like football history, I freaking LOVE baseball history, not that any of you probably care, but this is my footnote, so there.</p>
<p id="paragraph69">(5) While Fry talked big, it’s a myth that he ran a lot of exotics. What he ran a lot was draw plays on third down! There was a memorable one in the early eighties against Illinois: 3rd and 31, and Owen Gill gets 32 yards, I shat you naught. The G-D thing went for 32 yards! In another game against MSU in the eighties, we were stuck inside our own 10 with a back-up QB, and we punted--on THIRD DOWN. Fry ran only a few half-back passes, a reverse or two, and faked a couple of kicks. But not all that often (even today, the media will sometimes, and erroneously, write that he was wide-open and crazy with trick plays). And by the way, he never<em> did </em>run the ol’ Statue of Liberty play.</p>
<p id="paragraph70">(6) Obviously, Iowa losing leads late in games to long pass plays or blown coverages is not an entirely new phenomenon.</p>
<p id="paragraph71">(7) First year away from Iowa City, and Iowa goes 8-3 and gets into the Rose Bowl. That’s the kind of luck I sometimes have. To make matters worse, when we blocked a kick to score against UCLA, I could see my little brother run out into the end zone and pat the guy who scored on the back! And there I am, stuck at school the whole time, watching my lil’ bro on the ABC highlight show celebrate with the Hawks in the Kinnick end zone. Painful.</p>
<p id="paragraph72">(8) This game was so embarrassing to watch, it’s tough to talk about. Iowa couldn’t do a thing on offense, and had to resort to a half-back pass to get a first down in the second half. The final score was 28-0, but trust me: it wasn’t even that close.</p>
<p id="paragraph73">(9) I was tempted to say “Naked-hot Bo Derek” and leave it at that, but thought that would overly show my age. Saying “Naked-hot Jessica Alba” makes a man my age sound kinda’ pervy, maybe, but at least you young’uns can relate to it.</p>
<p id="paragraph74">(10) See what I did there? Schlichter was the first guy I ever heard of who had a “Gambling Addiction.” And my <a href="https://www.stampedeblue.com/">Colts</a> were dumb enough to draft him, too. Schlichter was genuinely a sick guy, and got himself in trouble with mobsters and into twelve kinds of shit as a result. His story would make a terrific movie, if directed by Scorcese.</p>
<p id="paragraph75">(11) That Penn State game was something else. It was high scoring, and Ronnie Harmon made the greatest catch in Iowa history that nobody remembers (I saw footage of it once, and it’s Hinkle-esque). As for Moritz, his long TD pass was hilarious: he was clearly slower than the OSU defensive back, but kept serpentining here and there with that DB a half-step behind him for SEVENTY yards. At any second you KNEW Moritz was going to get caught--but he never did. By the time he scored, we were all laughing out loud.</p>
<p id="paragraph76">(12) This is no exaggeration. We were at the old Field House and they had a special: $2 Long Island Ice Teas in those big old yellow plastic Field House cups that everyone had back in the eighties. There’s only one detail that sticks out about that night: Dire Strait’s MONEY FOR NUTHIN’ was being played continually on the stereo system. I think. Really, I can’t be sure. Anyway, I THINK I was at the Fieldhouse....</p>
<p id="paragraph77">(13) If push comes to shove, I’d rate the whole games of Iowa-Michigan 2003 and Iowa-Wisconsin this year as louder. But for single moments, the Station tackle and Houghtlin kick probably can’t be beat. It was awesome, in the better, old fashioned sense of that word. As for the ‘86 Rose Bowl, game of the Four Fumbles and the UCLA Running Back Juggernaut, the less said the better.</p>
<p id="paragraph78">(14) The rest of the season didn’t match the build-up and denouement of that Michigan epic: a rainy loss at OSU, then the UCLA disaster in the Rose Bowl. I danced with that girl on the field, and never saw her again. The “slept with” reference refers to that wonderful game compared to the rest of the season--and not that lovely lass, alas!</p>
<p id="paragraph79">(15) We all know the coaching tree, but we lost other important guys like Bernie Wyatt, who was the ace recruiter (and I recall went with Alvarez to Wisconsin), and <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/players/114762/carl-jackson"><strong>Carl Jackson</strong></a>, who moved on to the <a href="https://www.ninersnation.com/">49ers</a>, and so on. After 1992, when O’Hara died, the program never truly recovered from those assistant losses.</p>
<p id="paragraph80">(16) If I recall, this was on the annual fans-coaches cruise. I cannot imagine how awful this must have been, like watching the Space Shuttle Challenger blow up with that schoolteacher on board. One minute you’re partying and having a great time with the coaches in the Caribbean--the next, one of them lies cold in the ship’s morgue. Terrible.</p>
<p id="paragraph81">(17) Tavian was really good, but didn’t play much until his senior year. What I heard was that he was allergic to blocking, and couldn’t pick up a blitz to save a burning child. Imagine if he COULD’VE blocked, what a tandem he and Sedrick would’ve made! Best in Iowa history. But he couldn’t block, or so I’m told. In my lifetime, he’s the best back that played only one full season out of the four he was on the squad.</p>
<p id="paragraph82">(18) Sorry Steve Spurrier, but Hayden is the original Ol’ Ball Coach to me.You, sir, are an impostor!</p>
<p id="paragraph83">(19) As great as Hayden was, he never was that good at prepping teams for bowl games. I can’t explain why, since he was so good at winning other big games. He always beat ISU like a mule, he beat Michigan and OSU sometimes, and he put teams away early and wasn’t afraid to run up the score a little. But in Rose Bowls, all three, we lost pretty reasonably badly. And in the Holiday Bowls, we either tied or almost lost to lesser teams. His shining moment was that Freedom Bowl, plus convincing Sun Bowl and Alamo Bowl wins, but only a fool would take a convincing Lesser Bowl win over the cheapest Rose Bowl win.</p>
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2019/9/12/20860641/throwback-thursday-revisiting-hawkeye-football-history-with-the-director-1979-1998-hayden-fry-bhgpJPinIC2016-05-23T10:07:51-05:002016-05-23T10:07:51-05:00LET'S TALK ABOUT THE HAYDEN FRY STATUE
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<figcaption>Horace E. Cow</figcaption>
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<p>A statue of the famed Iowa coach is a great idea, but does this particular design capture the unique elan of Hayden Fry?</p> <p>You may have heard that the <a href="http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/coralville-to-unveil-hayden-fry-statue-in-september-20160520">City of Coralville has plans to unveil a Hayden Fry statue</a> at this year's FRY Fest. Broadly speaking, this is wonderful news. If any figure in Iowa sports has acquired the status of an icon worthy of statue-fication (and is not named Nile Kinnick), it's Hayden Fry. But about the <em>specific </em>statue design... It is a good likeness of the lantern-jawed, aviator-wearing Hayden in his classic period, but, assuming the final product resembles this working model, I see two potential problems:</p>
<h3>1) The proportions</h3>
<p>This is something that may change in the final design, so take this critique with a grain of salt, but the proportions of this statue don't look quite right to me. Hayden Fry had, I think we would all agree, a large head, but it wasn't <em>this </em>large. Here's my super-scientific comparison of statue-Hayden and actual-Hayden:</p>
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<p>As you can see, the real Hayden's head clocks in at about 13% of his total height, while statue Hayden's head rates almost 16% (the photograph of the statue is taken at a bit of an angle, and the hat obscures where exactly the head ends, but I hope the exact numbers wouldn't be too far off of this).</p>
<p>If you ever read a "how to draw superheroes" book you checked out from the library, you may recall a page like this one about realistic and heroic body proportions:</p>
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<p>As you can see, a normally proportioned body is 7.5 heads tall, which translates to a 13% head/body ratio. Hayden's real proportions are in that neighborhood. But as you go from realistic to heroic, the ratio of head/body shrinks, down to 11% in the case of the superhero. What this chart doesn't show is the effect when you go the other way and make the head too big for the body, but suffice it to say a too-large head makes the whole figure look a little stunted and cartoonish.</p>
<p>Can a 3% difference in head/body ratio really make that big a difference? You're darn right it can. Less than that is the difference between Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent. Hayden doesn't have to be depicted as a superhero (although it wouldn't hurt to make him a <em>little </em>heroic in his proportions – he is, after all, an Iowa hero), but his proportions should at least be true to life.</p>
<h3>2) The Pose</h3>
<p>A statue's pose should capture some essential quality about the figure depicted. But what does this pose say about Hayden Fry? Will it communicate the indefinable "Hayden-ness" of the beloved coach 70 years from now when everyone who watched him coach in his prime is dead and gone? I'm not sure. The pose is static and the expression is awfully serious. Does that express the quintessence of Fry? I don't think so.</p>
<p>If you had to describe Hayden Fry in three words, you could do worse than joyous, funny, and triumphant. Win or lose, he always seemed like he was having the best damn time, as if he was pulling off a tremendous joke on the world. He transformed Iowa's football program into a winner, but did it without sacrificing exuberance, style and fun. How do you capture that combination of sly humor, bursting energy, and competitive fire? Like this:</p>
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<p>Karate-kicking Hayden Fry (taken from <a href="http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/741720/hayden.jpg">this</a> photograph) <em>is</em> Hayden Fry. It represents, in concrete form, the joyous spirit of the coach who has become the spirit animal of Iowa fandom. I'm sure the cantilevered design would pose some technical difficulties, but we have an engineering school, don't we? Let's make this happen, people.</p>
<p>Feel free to register your thoughts in the comments. Do you like the new statue? Is there a different pose/era of Fry you would prefer? This could be the <a href="http://postalmuseum.si.edu/artofthestamp/subpage%20table%20images/artwork/rarities/Elvis%20Ballot/elvisballot.htm">young Elvis/old Elvis controversy</a> all over again.</p>
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2016/5/23/11735606/lets-talk-about-the-hayden-fry-statueHorace E. Cow2015-10-19T20:12:31-05:002015-10-19T20:12:31-05:0030 YEARS AGO: THE BIGGEST KICK IN IOWA HISTORY
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<p>Happy Houghtlin Day, everybody!</p> <p>Sorry, Messrs. Kaeding, Murray, and Koehn. With all due respect to your great work and the clutch kicks that you made that sent us into fits of delirious joy, there's only one choice for the biggest kick -- the greatest kick -- in the history of Iowa football. And it just so happened to take place 30 years ago today.</p>
<p>October 19, 1985. #1 Iowa. #2 Michigan. Kinnick Stadium. The biggest game in in the history of Kinnick Stadium? Very probably. #1 versus #2 games are rare creatures to begin with. #1 versus #2 games involving Iowa -- and hosted at Kinnick Stadium, no less -- are even rarer. Iowa was atop the football world 30 years ago and their crowning moment was this game, an epic, hard-fought battle against a historic Big Ten powerhouse in the midst of a tremendous season of their own. The names in the game are the stuff of legend for Big Ten fans: Bo Schembechler. Hayden Fry. Jim Harbaugh. Chuck Long. And so many more.</p>
<p>The game came down to a kick and another legendary name -- at least, a name that's legendary among Iowa fans. Rob Houghtlin had made three field goals earlier in the game, but with two seconds to go, Iowa trailed 10-9 and needed Houghtlin to boot one more kick between the uprights. One more kick to preserve an undefeated season (and get Iowa to 6-0). One more kick to defeat a longtime Big Ten nemesis. One more kick to stay #1.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QLzSpaEnA64" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>The kick was good.</p>
<p>The 1985 season hit a few speedbumps after this great moment, but this game -- and this kick -- will live forever in the hearts and minds of Iowa fans. Thanks for 30 years of great memories, Rob Houghtlin & Co.</p>
<p>And if you need more highlights from that game:</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OMGk5QKBmXo" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>Or, hell, just <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMsBO10TJp8">watch the whole dang game</a> if you want.</p>
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/football/2015/10/19/9572113/30-years-ago-today-the-biggest-kick-in-iowa-football-historyRossWB2015-05-05T17:13:10-05:002015-05-05T17:13:10-05:00SMU HONORS HAYDEN FRY 43 YEARS AFTER FIRING HIM
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<figcaption>Earl Richardson/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Also it sounds like Fry got fired for, well, being Hayden Fry.</p> <p>Hayden Fry has few black marks on his resume, and he's got a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame to show for it, but one point has always stood out in defiance of logic: in 1972, SMU fired Fry after his team went 7-4, only the Mustangs' third season with at least seven wins since the late 1940s (the other two, both 8-3 marks in 1966 and '68, were also Fry's work). SMU never offered Fry an explanation, but the program's loss was ultimately Iowa's gain; Fry landed on his feet at North Texas State before parlaying success there into a run at Iowa for the ages.</p>
<p>More than 40 years later, the now-moribund SMU program has finally realized that a Hall of Fame coach with a squeaky-clean record with the NCAA who has ties to your program and is still alive <em>just might</em> be someone worth associating with again, and <a href="http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020915aac.html">gave him the inaugural "Legends Award"</a> for contributions on and off the field. Of course Fry deserves it, but even if this move came 20 years prior it would have been oddly late. Anyway.</p>
<p>Mike Hlas of <em>The Gazette</em> <a href="http://thegazette.com/subject/sports/hlas-after-43-years-hayden-fry-and-smu-reconcile-20150505?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">talked with Fry over the phone earlier</a>, and as you might expect, it's well worth the read. Here's one passage that stands out:</p>
<p>Fry was a 32-year-old offensive coordinator at Arkansas when SMU approached him. He says he told them he had to be able to recruit African-Americans to accept that job, and was originally rebuffed.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"We were at the Sugar Bowl getting ready to play Bear Bryant's Alabama team in the Sugar Bowl," he said. "I was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas. During the pregame warm-up, a maintenance man said there was an emergency call for me at the phone under the stands.</p>
<p>"A gentleman said ‘Coach Fry, this is LaMar Hunt (who founded and owned the Kansas City Chiefs) representing SMU. If you'll change your mind you can recruit one black player.' "</p>
<p>That player was LeVias, who eventually became an All-American. He and Fry entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You, like Fry, may consider racism silly and stupid, the domain of the feeble-minded and prejudiced. And it's certainly that, but it's not <em>only</em> that—plenty of well-educated and successful people (including, y'know, LaMar Hunt) have enforced it over the years, and defiance of it is an act that comes at one's own peril. As Hlas' article notes, Fry has speculated in the past that his firing came as a result of refusing to allow SMU boosters to pay the players, but it takes some deliberate misreading of the situation to think the animus created by Fry's forced integration <em>didn't</em> play a role in the decision to let Fry walk.</p>
<p>There's no bravery without risk. Fry knew what the status quo at SMU (and the rest of the whites-only SWC) was before he showed up. He did the right thing, and it probably cost him the benefit of the doubt when boosters decided they wanted more. That's a negative professional consequence to a statement of (at the time) radical belief. History has come down on both sides accordingly, and now let's make no mistake: it's SMU football who needs Fry's validation, and not the other way around.</p>
<p>The schools of the SWC wouldn't be segregated to this day if Fry hadn't shown up; that'd be preposterous. But Fry was the first one to <em>insist</em>, to declare that his would be the first program to stand up to the nonsense. And finally, after over 40 years, SMU has issued the only proper response to that decision: "thank you."</p>
https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2015/5/5/8556811/smu-hayden-fry-legends-awardAdam Jacobi2015-04-14T12:00:13-05:002015-04-14T12:00:13-05:00A KODAK MOMENT? TAKING STOCK OF IOWA FB'S BRAND
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<p>A snapshot look at the Iowa Hawkeyes football brand in the wake of recent unmet expectations under Kirk Ferentz.</p> <p>Kodak is famous within marketing circles for being the first company to ever integrate its name and look into a symbol for its logo. Once one of the bluest of blue chip brands, Kodak recently came out of bankruptcy protection in hopes of mounting one final push toward solvency but even their current CEO will admit that the Kodak brand has long since faded to black when compared to its prior authority thanks almost exclusively to its inability to respond to a rise in digital use. Ironically, it was Kodak engineers who actually invented the technology that would be principally responsible for its eventual demise, the digital camera in 1975. Like most innovations the idea was not deemed particularly useful by an executive management team that was deeply cemented to the film business and suffering from an arrogance of success. By 2009 when the last spool of Kodachrome film rolled off the line in Mexico, Kodak had flatlined. Despite the fact that Kodak's brand awareness is now manifestly extinct, for a coach of a certain age (whose cliches remain superglued to a pre-digital timeline), Iowa football's "Kodak moments" <s>persist</s> endure.</p>
<p>Of course the world of business has other examples of seemingly rock solid brands, painstakingly built over the course of years of success, only to experience decline. Consider the current states of the Toyota, Kmart, BlackBerry, and Yahoo! brand. All are current examples of declining brands despite appreciable growth in their respective industries. When comparing thriving brands against those that are weakening, the improving brands are just better at identifying what consumers want or they're better at shaping their desires. Struggling brands, on the other hand, ignore signs of decline until confronted with inescapable setback.</p>
<p>Marketers will tell you consumers have never been more sophisticated in the purchase process. Customers are no longer uncritical or passive patrons and the marketplace is saturated with competition. Brand loyalty, therefore, is more elusive and thereby more important than ever. Brand loyalty, after all, is what helps smooth the inevitable ups and downs between consumer and brand. Brand loyalty is the shock absorber that allows a product ride through the rough spots.</p>
<p><em>So, where does this leave Iowa's current football brand?</em></p>
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<p>Before we debate that, let's first agree on <em>what is a brand</em>? Most marketing textbooks pretty much agree that branding is the idea that when anyone hears the name of a product they have some impression, some understanding of what that product stands for. When a brand is recognized by potential customers, as in the consumer actually knows enough about the product to correctly associate it with a brand, this is called "brand awareness." Branding, thus, is when the consumer has an unspoken expectation about what a product will deliver. In the case of Iowa football, which is sports entertainment, the consumers are the <em>fans</em> and the product is the team's play and performance.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>++++</strong></p>
<p>These days we accept that college football is unabashedly branded entertainment. But this was not always the case. It could be argued (and has been) that 1984 was a turning point for college athletics in general, but especially for college football.</p>
<p>Back in 1984 the NCAA negotiated all national television deals and limited college football teams to six television appearances in a two-year span. The University of Georgia and the University of Oklahoma, representing the sentiments of a significant block of major college football programs (although certainly not all of them) sued the NCAA with the belief that the NCAA television plan violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts.</p>
<blockquote> <p>In 1984, the Supreme Court set the new course for college sports when it ruled on NCAA v. Board of Regents, an antitrust lawsuit brought by member schools who objected to the NCAA's control over television broadcast contracts.</p> <p>The NCAA argued that if it lost, it would doom college sports.</p> <p>The NCAA lost. Since then, the annual growth rate of Division I-A (FBS) college athletic departments has been 8.2 percent, fueled by growing TV contracts negotiated by conferences. Big-time college sports has grown faster than the U.S. economy (5.0 percent). Even McDonald's (7.7 percent) can't compete.</p> <p style="text-align: right;">-- <a href="http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/9404803/why-ed-obannon-antitrust-lawsuit-was-inevitable-ncaa-why-face-challenge" style="background-color: #ffffff;">From ESPN.com</a></p> </blockquote>
<p>The Supreme Court voted 7-2 in favor of the universities, finding the NCAA's actions were in fact <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_v._Board_of_Regents_of_the_University_of_Oklahoma">"a restraint of trade."</a> The Supreme Court had based their decision on the notion that by the NCAA restraining price and output of college football games they had created a system that was unrelated to a free and competitive market.</p>
<blockquote> <p>"It changed the landscape," said antitrust expert Gary Roberts -- former dean of the Indiana University law school in Indianapolis. "Instead of the NCAA being able to limit and regulate how teams sell their product to television so that we can keep a level playing field, it unleashed a free enterprise kind of culture that elevated the pursuit of revenues above the interest of the student-athletes.</p> <p>"It was an antitrust decision that forced major college athletic programs to function like they were for-profit businesses."</p> <p> </p> <p align="right">-- <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=M7gpiebyzssC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+supreme+court+and+the+ncaa+brian+porto&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AiHWVKXjLYKlNqPVgkg&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20supreme%20court%20and%20the%20ncaa%20brian%20porto&f=false">From The Supreme Court and the NCAA by Brian Porto</a></p> </blockquote>
<p>In the wake of the ruling college football slowly transitioned its primary concern away from the student athlete and began operating, as do all for-profit businesses, with an even greater concern for the consumer...the <em>fan</em>. Interestingly Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, wrote in his majority decision a kind of prediction on where college football was likely to go:</p>
<blockquote><p>Moreover, the NCAA seeks to market a particular brand of football -- college football. The identification of this "product" with an academic tradition differentiates college football from and makes it more popular than professional sports to which it might otherwise be comparable, such as, for example, minor league baseball. </p></blockquote>
<p>So, back to branding. There are obvious benefits of creating a brand for a business. Brands create consumer trust and cultivate emotional attachments. Brand image is the "personality" that people associate with a product. It adds to <strong>brand equity</strong> by creating an emotional connection between consumers and what they buy. When people can relate to a brand, they tend to stay loyal to it over time. And here is the key benefit of a brand: it allows a business to create a price premium. People will pay to be associated with a brand. A brand serves, too, as a differentiator, in a marketplace where the basic product or service is widely offered. A well conceived brand can establish a product as unique, and in a marketplace driven by supply and demand, people will pay premium prices for unique products.</p>
<p>It is well known among frequent visitors to this blog that for a number of years now Iowa has been among one of the best athletic departments in the country at generating revenue (<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516590&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Fschools%2Ffinances%2F&referrer=sbnation.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackheartgoldpants.com%2Ffootball%2F2015%2F4%2F14%2F7952093%2Fa-kodak-moment-taking-stock-of-iowas-football-brand" target="_blank" style="background-color: #ffffff;" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener">recently ranked 11th</a>). A year ago ESPN's <em>Outside the Lines</em> looked at revenue earned by university athletic departments specifically through <a target="_blank" href="http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/101195/b1g-numbers-building-the-brand" style="background-color: #ffffff;">licensing, sponsorships, advertising, and royalties</a> for a seven-year period, concluding with the 2012-13 season. Within the Big Ten the top three programs in this particular study were Michigan with nearly $110 million earned, then Nebraska at $64 million, and Ohio State at $60 million. Seeing those three teams at the top is not especially surprising. Each have multiple national championships to bolster their awareness. The fourth team on the list, however, might take a little of your breath away: Minnesota ($48.5 million). The fifth team? Iowa, with $42 million.</p>
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<p>Manish Tripathy, a marketing professor for the <a href="https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/esma/">Emory Sports Marketing Analytics project</a>, has spearheaded research using publicly available data to measure and rank a sports teams and their brand equity. As Tripathy points out, <strong>brand equity</strong> with sports entities is an intangible asset that depends on associations made by the consumer, so analysis requires indirect measures. Tripathy believes brand equity for sports entities is very closely tied to intense fan loyalty. He measures this through a concept he calls "fan equity."</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our baseline concept of fan quality is something we term <strong>fan equity</strong>. This is similar in spirit to "brand equity" but is adapted to focus specifically on the <em>intensity</em> of customer preference (rather than to consider market coverage or awareness). We calculate fan equity using a revenue-premium model. The basic approach is to develop a statistical model of team revenues based on team performance and market characteristics. We then compare the forecasted revenues from this model for each team to actual revenues. When teams actual revenues exceed predicted revenues, we take this as evidence of superior fan support.</p>
<p>For the fan equity analysis, we build a statistical model using publicly available data from the last fourteen years that predicts team revenues as a function of metrics related to team performance such as winning percentage, bowl participation, and other factors such as number of students, stadium capacity, etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
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<p>In 2014 Tripathy ranked Iowa in the Top Ten nationally in fan equity. It is important to reiterate that in Tripathy's methodology he controls for factors such as market size, and short variations in team performance. He is trying to find out who the real overachievers are and to over-value market size or fleeting success would compromise that effort. By contextualizing market size and outlier winning seasons he can generate a measurement that is more stable or that evaluates "true" preference levels for a team. To the general public, who has a very short attention span, today's winners always appear to have strong brand and fan equity. But Tripathy and his team know better. So while it might have been a bit surprising to see Iowa ranked so highly (above), by looking at things from Tripathy's perspective it makes it far less nutty to see the Hawkeyes in a Top Ten alongside so many other bona fide blue bloods.</p>
<p>If one were to spend a week reading football commentary here at BHGP over the last few seasons they would no doubt come away believing Iowa football fan loyalty is on the wane, but Tripathy's lofty ranking of Iowa's fan equity might be revealing testimony to the power of the Hawkeyes sports brand. While Iowa is a modestly sized university within the Big Ten (Iowa is currently ranked 12th in the Big Ten in enrollment <em>and</em> endowment) and the program must share its small state with another FBS athletic program, it is still the case that Iowa<a style="background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/upshot/ncaa-football-fan-map.html?_r=0"> is among a handful of college football teams that has considerable appeal beyond the borders of current and former students</a>.</p>
<p>Iowa fans who are loyal to the Hawkeyes despite not having attended the university are occasionally identified pejoratively as Tavern Hawks, especially by that other FBS fanbase in-state who are overwhelmed by the attention that is lavished upon the <a href="https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Iowa Hawkeyes</a> (much of it even within their own backyard). Tavern Hawks are a powerful faction within the fan equity equation for the Iowa athletic department. There is no way to know when most of these folks initially developed their relationship to the Iowa Hawkeyes brand, but their intensity can likely be traced back to one man.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>++++</strong></p>
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<blockquote><h5 style="text-align: center;">"Where I come from, it’s called selling the sizzle before the steak." — Hayden Fry</h5></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">When Hayden Fry arrived on campus in the late 1970s he immediately went about the task of revitalizing, indeed reshaping the Iowa Hawkeyes football brand. Iowa had endured 17 seasons in a row of non-winning football yet <span>Fry was eager to take on the daunting task of turning Iowa's football fortunes around, but not by winning. At least not right away.</span> Fry knew attitudes had to change before performance could follow.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">His first order of business was to change the uniforms. Fry, a psychology major in college, understood that in order to manifest change he would need to first separate Iowa's identity from any markers of its losing past. Fry had coached Mean Joe Greene at North Texas and kept close watch on his career to the NFL where he had become arguably the best defensive player, playing for the PIttsburgh Steelers. The Steelers were the dominant NFL franchise in the period that marked Fry's arrival at Iowa. Fry reached out to Greene to inquire about getting replica jerseys for the purpose of possibly creating some kind of facsimile, which led Greene to introduce Fry to Steelers ownership. Fry asked the Steelers to grant Iowa permission to imitate their uniform scheme and the Steelers agreed, with a few modest modifications. And well before any on-the-field success was achieved, the Hawkeyes became one of the first and only college teams to take on an NFL uniform scheme.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Next up for Fry was the introduction of a new logo. Many college teams (including Iowa at the time) were using logos designed as cartoon characterizations of the mascot, but Fry wanted something much more graphic and contemporary (if not more fearsome looking to boot). After an initial failed effort to find a desirable design through a campus contest Fry turned to a Cedar Rapids art director who would eventually design the Tiger Hawk logo. Fry now had a new logo for his helmets and new uniforms. For longtime fans the Hawkeyes had undergone a complete visual makeover, and the natives were unsure what to think. But by Fry's third year Iowa was in the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/rose-bowl" class="sbn-auto-link">Rose Bowl</a> and just like that fans adopted the logo and uniform change that marked a new era in Iowa athletics.</p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Side note:</strong> Fry recognized there was financial opportunity associated with the new Tiger Hawk brand, of which he owned at the time, and struck a deal with J.C. Penney stores around the state selling Tiger Hawk gear. Fry wanted to sell his new brand of football, and in the process made himself a ton of money. Then in 1982 Fry outright donated the Tiger Hawk logo to the university. Licensing deals were quickly developed and Iowa had a cash cow on its hands.</p></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">What Fry was able to do with the Iowa brand was by every measure so incredibly successful as to become a model of success. Former Fry assistant coach Bill Snyder took the model lock, stock and barrel to Manhattan, Kansas upon his hiring as head coach at Kansas State in 1988, and crafted what was once a completely disregarded and disgraced program into arguably the greatest turnaround in college football history. Again, first by changing the brand and then by fortifying it through winning.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt="logo" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oVOBngryS5uqBVag6nDofLhZHr4=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3364826/Screen_Shot_2015-02-01_at_11.22.49_AM.0.png">
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<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Tiger Hawk logo vs. Power Cat logo</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>When Kirk Ferentz arrived on campus in 1998 as Hayden Fry's successor, the Iowa brand was very well established, although the winning of the earlier Fry era had faded. Had Ferentz chosen to make some superficial changes to the program's branded look or feel, as Fry had done some 20 years earlier, it would not have been surprising (although it might not have been met with much enthusiasm). Coaches often introduce new rituals, uniform modifications, etc. to signal a break with a past that, usually, has included some untenable losing -- new coaches are hired, after all, to improve things. But Ferentz understood that fans were fond of what Iowa football had become under Fry and were not looking for a new attitude, they just wanted to win again. Besides, having grown up in Pittsburgh it's possible that Ferentz was plenty thrilled with the look of the uniforms anyway.</p>
<p>While Ferentz might not have made changes to Iowa's branded appearance, he made clear-cut changes to the way in which his teams would play and how he would run the program. Since their personal brands could not have been more different, the Iowa brand under each coach would become a direct reflection of the men themselves. Whereas Fry, a former quarterback, chose to innovate on offense, Ferentz, a former linebacker who had become an offensive line specialist as a coach, eschewed trickery for tradition.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="fryferentz" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JO0CI3AudyOrTo6tKaIwIb7Wf1k=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3377386/fry_ferentz.0.png">
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<p>Fry was happy to wear white slacks and USS Iowa caps on the sidelines (Fry later explained that his sideline dress code was dictated by needing to stand out so his quarterback could find him for playcalling purposes). Conversely Ferentz's sideline dress was khakis and no hat at all, instead choosing to blend in with the myriad of coaches and football personnel roaming the sidelines. The Ferentz-led Hawkeyes settled in on a defense-first approach, and committed to rugged offensive line play to make way for a smashmouth run game. Ferentz introduced a "balance" and "execution" mantra and following a string of exceptional, if not historic seasons, an <em>updating </em>of the Iowa brand had taken shape.</p>
<p>Ferentz's recruiting approach has proven to also stand in contrast to Fry's. Fry believed Iowa's high school talent pool was too shallow to support an elite college football program. So Fry also recruited nationally. Under Fry players came from California, Texas, Florida, and Queens, NY, and every place in between. Fry then relied upon one of the best coaching trees in the history of college football to achieve his goals. Ferentz has arrived at a different solution to the tenuous Iowa high school talent pool. He has turned Iowa into a full-scale developmental operation whereby he scouts the best players in Iowa, especially through his camps, looking for guys who are most suited physically and mentally for the Iowa developmental model. Then he similarly tries to unearth diamonds in the rough in the backyard of Iowa's midwest rivals, and more modestly within certain hotbed recruiting areas beyond that. Ferentz's "Iowa Way" is to let his strength and conditioning coach and positional coaches take it from there.</p>
<p>Within a few years of his taking over as head coach at Iowa, the Hawkeyes became known as a program that played a very physical brand of football. Ferentz believed in and sold the full developmental cycle to recruits and fans alike, believing it created a talent pipeline on campus by allowing players to reach their full physical, emotional and intellectual potential under the watchful eye of he and his staff. Ideally, under Ferentz's model, players would be making their greatest contributions in their final years on campus--assuming they bought into the model and stayed to complete the process.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the last few years under Ferentz have seen less stellar results than the first few, and one has to wonder what impact this might be having on Iowa football's brand loyalty. It is easy to say that Ferentz is far less savvy or even interested in branding than was Fry. Fry appeared to view the self-esteem of the program as an outgrowth of external positive feedback. If the chatter outside was negative, the chatter inside would naturally follow. This was one of the reasons <a href="https://youtu.be/mCtexgT2PuQ">Fry would so often go to war with the media</a> over their characterizations of his team.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>++++</strong></p>
<p>Iowa football, like the University itself, is an open system. It's the football program of a public university. Information abounds, by law. But, Kirk Ferentz thinks differently than did Fry. Whereas Fry was courting interest, often, Kirk Ferentz is trying to restrict it. He attempts to organize the program as existing within a bubble that emerges only every so often...on Saturdays, for example. Ferentz spent critical developmental years in the NFL, a viciously copycat league with coaches and players moving back and forth from team to team. Controlling information in the NFL is nearly impossible and akin to national intelligence concerns, as NFL coaches often view it as paramount to success. Ferentz struggles to talk openly and often about the affairs of the program as a result. When other coaches meet with the media it can feel like witnessing video footage of Russian life before the fall of the Berlin Wall. For many years Ferentz has more or less tried to isolate the football program from the surrounding environment. It is a model of communication that's been nearly impossible to sustain in the age of social media. As much as anything, Ferentz's reluctance and discomfort at doing the one thing that came so naturally to Fry, support the football brand identity, is what might be his greatest challenge as a head coach in 2015. It is worth noting, however, that the early returns of 2015 suggest a shift in public relations efforts for the football program and Ferentz. But time will judge the sincerity of these early efforts.</p>
<p>Introvertedness, competitive anxiety, control -- all might help explain why Ferentz is explicitly if not vigorously nostalgic when he speaks with the media. Ferentz has chosen to adopt a position as guardian of the Iowa brand as constructed by Fry, which frees him up from having to creatively and actively cultivate and enrich the brand around himself. Just listen to a Kirk Ferentz press conference and you will be given a lesson in Iowa football history. The history lessons might be a reminder of his glory years as coach, or they might be a reminder of the glory years of Fry. On January 14th, at <a href="http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/football/2015/01/14/full-transcript-from-kirk-ferentzs-wednesday-press-conference/21774397/">one of his most recent press conferences</a> -- a press conference <em>he</em> called to discuss<strong> the "future" of Iowa football</strong> -- he invoked the 1980s and 1990s at least 10 times:</p>
<ul class="unIndentedList"> <li> "Amy Thomas picked me up my first day of work in 1981."</li> <li> "I've always felt fortunate to be here going back to 1981."</li> <li>"I don't think I ever felt lower than 1981 after Minnesota beat us out there..."</li> <li> "...we got here in 1999, and at that time we were looking up at basically everybody in our conference and pretty much on our schedule."</li> <li> "Going back to 1999 I don't think I've ever put a timetable on things."</li> <li> "I've said this publicly too, realistically we weren't going to Pasadena in 1999."</li> <li> "As I came here, our attendance wasn't great in 1999."</li> <li> "But I'm coaching the way I did in 1999."</li> <li> "Again, I'll just reemphasize in 2000 and 1999, realistically it would have taken a lot for us to end up in the Rose Bowl."</li> <li> "...I said 16 years ago and have said on and off between December of 1998 until now. Things haven't changed a heck of a lot from my vantage point."</li> </ul>
<p>Under Kirk Ferentz, almost 35 years after Fry's initial rebranding of Iowa football, the program can feel like a time capsule buried at midfield in Kinnick stadium and dug up roughly 7 times a year on Saturday afternoons.</p>
<p><strong>When Good Brands Go Bad</strong></p>
<p>People who study marketing believe the seeds of brand decline are often sewed at the moment one is arriving at greatness. Building the brand slips almost unnoticed into <em>preservation</em> of the brand, and soon forgotten is the discipline and objectivity that got you in the lead in the first place. As you would expect, brands are weakened the most when they take the customer for granted -- this is, unequivocally, the deadliest sin of marketing. Fry appeared to understand this fully when he considered coming to Iowa in the first place. The story is now legendary, that when Fry was considering where to go after North Texas State for his next head coaching job he zeroed in on Iowa's extraordinary fanbase. "I walked into the film room, and all my coaches were watching film of the University of Iowa playing someone, and every time the Hawkeyes would make a first down, the entire Kinnick Stadium would just erupt," Fry recalled in his autobiography, <em>Hayden Fry: A High Porch Picnic</em>. "They'd all get up and cheer. I got to thinking, 'My gosh, what would happen if we made a touchdown?' "</p>
<p>When a successful brand just de facto assumes the customers who bought-in in the past will continue to buy-in in the future, out of brand loyalty and fidelity alone, the cracks begin to emerge. It might be that history will show that signs of an Iowa Hawkeyes brand decline of any significant measure were most apparent at the TaxSlayer Bowl game. While Tennessee had some 50,000 fans in attendance in Jacksonville, Florida, Iowa is estimated to have had between 3,000 and 5,000 fans.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9NeBUXTx2tzu1Zxka79Xvk9geyI=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3359902/B9315728121Z.1_20150103005444_000_GRB9ITKNL.1-0.0.jpg">
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Tennessee fans lavish attention upon their 7-6 football team prior to the TaxSlayer Bowl. </em></p>
<p>Whether the former or latter estimate is more correct, either number is staggeringly low for a program that has a stunning history of vigorous and on some occasions jaw-dropping fan following (some have claimed Iowa had over 10,000 fans <em>outside</em> the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/orange-bowl" class="sbn-auto-link">Orange Bowl</a> the night of the Iowa vs. USC game). Far and away, this year's TaxSlayer Bowl serves as a fan following low point in the program's history.</p>
<p>So what is happening here? Typically short-term focus edges out long-term thinking, and the erosion of the brand (tied, of course, to product quality) inexplicably takes years to become apparent to the keepers. One could assume that Barta and Ferentz's recent post-season press conference was an odd and awkward first step in acknowledging Iowa's depreciating brand. That only now these two are willing to address matters seems unforgivable given all the signs so obvious to interested observers, both local and national. It is not as if Iowa, and Ferentz in particular, haven't been identified as relics of the college football world, out of step with the changing times. <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2013-07-08/kirk-ferentz-worst-coach-college-football-sports-illustrated-list-iowa-hawkeyes">Stewart Mandel was an early adopter nationally</a> with such an opinion, and since his article there have been a slew of others questioning the wisdom of Iowa to <em>keep on keepin' on</em> with Ferentz at the controls. Just as the kneebone is connected to the shin bone, so too is winning and doing so with sizzle to growing one's brand.</p>
<p>So what might be some signs of decline?</p>
<p><strong>Competition Blind Spot:</strong></p>
<p>Who is Iowa looking to as its standard these days? When Hayden Fry first arrived he changed the Iowa uniforms to copy those of the most successful NFL team of the times, the Pittsburgh Steelers. He put a bull's eye on Michigan, the winningest program in college football history at the time, as the dragon that must be slayed. Identify and pursue their goals as a pathway to realizing their standing in the conference and beyond. However, under Kirk Ferentz it is unclear to me whose success we are now trying to follow. In fact, too often I hear Barta and Ferentz trying to convince folks that Iowa is merely trying to emulate...Iowa (usually articulated as contemporary Iowa trying to recreate Iowa's fill-in-the-blank period of prior success). Meanwhile, we seek not to extend our brand in other areas of program development. We have not expanded our recruiting territory in the past 16 years, and have likely contracted it. Despite winning seasons the last couple of years Iowa is off the grid on night games. <em>(Ed. Note: Although that is changing this season.)</em> Despite being the dean of Big Ten coaches, and having had a front row view of a changing college football landscape, Ferentz is almost nowhere to be seen on issues nationally. No one asks his opinion and it is unclear to me why. It seems, frankly, almost impossible that Kirk Ferentz is a silent voice nationally. Iowa now lives in a bubble, with its introverted and blinkered coach, which is very different from when Fry was the head coach.</p>
<p><strong>Self-image (aka Ego):</strong></p>
<p>Repeat after me, <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/102867/will-iowas-moneyball-recruiting-pay-off">"The Iowa Way," "The Iowa Way," "The Iowa Way."</a> Who knew that the successful operating model that got you Top Ten rankings and BCS appearances could also be like a Narcissus reflection in the water? Has Iowa's <em>Iowa Way</em> brand fallen too in love with itself not realizing it is merely a constructed image and images require constant attention? To be sure, for the first half of Kirk Ferentz's tenure Iowa's national brand was almost impenetrable. Seemingly every analyst that called an Iowa game would gush about how "Iowa does it the right way" or that "Iowa is where I would send my kid to play," but the second half has been almost a complete inversion, especially of late. Criticism by national columnists -- mostly anchored to his annual salary -- has become a cliche. But recruiting rankings can be a ruthless yardstick. And it is there that Iowa looks more and more diminished (Iowa has been ranked in the low to middle 50s by Rivals.com for the last two years, and is trending backward). And like many Iowa fans, I too have fallen into the trap of defending Ferentz and <em>The Iowa Way</em> against criticisms by outsiders, mostly in the name of self-preservation. By indiscriminately defending <em>The Iowa Way</em> over the past few years, keeping it free of unvarnished criticism, fans and local media may have been inadvertently emboldening a resistance to change.</p>
<p><strong>Loss Of Objectivity:</strong></p>
<p>Kirk Ferentz is not especially progressive in confronting negative feedback. Of this we all know. The net effect of his leadership style is that real discussions and real criticism can sometimes get pushed underground. Many press conferences are like the television series, <em>Intervention,</em> with Ferentz grumbling at any suggestion he or his staff have any real problems to confront. Often the subtext of a Ferentz press conference is that the problem is not his or the program's, but the media's. One cannot help but to fear that the meetings inside the football complex for the last several years have reflected the rhetorical character of a Ferentz press conference. <em>The Iowa Way</em> culture, which was founded and bred on early success, is in great peril of transforming into a culture where criticism is comically minimized ("that's football") and real problems are suppressed, and thus never frankly and effectively addressed publicly <em>or</em> privately.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>++++</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Iowa football has had two winning seasons in a row and has been invited to two consecutive bowl games and yet the sky is falling for Iowa football. That is how many on this site feel; these critical comments are easily found. It is also how many on other fan sites see us. It's not hard to find national columnists suggesting the same. Wouldn't this suggest there is a branding problem going on here? Despite back-to-back winning seasons the collective feeling among the fanbase appears to vary from apathy to antipathy. Thus, despite Tripathy's Emory Sports Marketing findings discussed above, it is hard to see the brand as anything other than damaged.</p>
<p>Can the very people who stood by as this happened be trusted to recognize and revitalize things? Probably not. Ferentz's argument is that he deserves credit for helping to strengthen the brand in the first place. Therefore, he knows what he's doing and he deserves to be given the time to do it again. This is the Ferentz 3.0 argument. But the same Kodak executives who helped build the Kodak brand also facilitated its destruction. Ferentz has had his Kodak moment, and like a faded glossy print of a kid in bell-bottom jeans and a trucker's hat, he is ready for his rightful place in Iowa's football photo album. But the chances of this happening anytime soon seems remote.</p>
<p>As no successful marketing executive will ever tell you, "That's branding."</p>
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https://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/football/2015/4/14/7952093/a-kodak-moment-taking-stock-of-iowas-football-brandStoopsMyAss