Black history Month makes me think of Hayden Fry’s impact and courage
Wednesday is national signing day and Fry was a courageous recruiter
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – College football recruiting has changed in so many ways since I started covering it on a pretty regular basis for the Iowa City Press-Citizen in 1991.
It became my beat, and I enjoyed it, the chase and getting to know the recruits and their families, and the coaches who played a role.
This was before the Internet and cell phones and recruiting websites and crystal balls and 7-on-7 skill camps.
It was old-style recruiting coverage where a landline, word of mouth and knowing the right people were the best ways to communicate.
One of the first recruiting stories I remember writing was about two high school teammates from Austin, Texas named Sedrick Shaw and Demo Odems.
Demo was short for Demosesneeds, and needless to say, I was fascinated by his name.
Shaw would go on to become Iowa’s all-time leading rusher with 4,156 yards, while Odems was a four-year letter-winner who finished with over 900 receiving yards and five touchdowns as a Hawkeye
I remember asking Odems why he picked Iowa, and he mentioned how much his family respected and admired Hayden Fry, and everything he stood for as a head coach, and as a person.
Fry, as the head coach for Southern Methodist University, had broken the color barrier in the Southwest Conference in the mid-1960s by recruiting Jerry LeVias.
It was a decision that took a tremendous amount of courage from both Fry and LeVias, and their resolve made a lasting impression.
I covered the Iowa football beat for seven seasons from 1992-98 with Fry as head coach, and countless black players told me that Fry’s support of civil rights and his willingness to confront racism helped convince them to sign with Iowa.
Many of the black players told me that Fry had convinced their parents he would be like a father figure to their sons, and would always protect and care for them, and they believed him because, well, he was Hayden Fry.
They knew that Fry had been brave enough to confront racism at a time when many college head football coaches refused to in the 1960s, and that still carried a lot of weight 30 years later, and it still does today.
I bring this up now because Wednesday is the traditional signing day for college football, and because February is Black History Month.
The Iowa football program, and head coach Kirk Ferentz, have been under a microscope since multiple former Iowa black players accused the program of racial disparities.
It would be foolish and unfair to dismiss the accusations because there are just too many.
Iowa took a drastic step by reaching a separation agreement with long-time strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle barely two weeks after the first accusations were made, with many having been directed at Doyle
Only time and behavior will determine if the culture has changed under Kirk Ferentz, but there are some encouraging signs, including Iowa finishing the 2020 season on a six-game winning streak after starting the season 0-2.
It seems highly unlikely that a team being torn apart by racial unrest could have stayed unified on the football field, especially after losing its first two games.
There also are more black players on Iowa’s Leadership Group than white players for the first time under Kirk Ferentz.
So that’s another sign of progress.
Iowa’s reputation has taken a beating, but this is also the same program, and the same school that has been at the forefront and promoted racial equality in sports, and where Hayden Fry worked for two decades, and that should mean something moving forward.
Kirk Ferentz was Fry’s offensive line coach at Iowa for nine seasons from 1981-89, so Ferentz saw up close how Fry ran the program, and how Fry built an inclusive culture.
And that gives me hope that Ferentz will overcome this adversity.
The battle starts on the recruiting trail where opposing schools almost certainly will use the accusations against Iowa because recruiting is a cut-throat business.
The Iowa football program has a proud tradition when it comes to racial equality. Iowa recruited black players long before most other colleges even entertained the idea.
Frank Kinney Holbrook was the first African-American intercollegiate athlete at the University of Iowa and one of the first African-Americans to participate on a college varsity athletic squad. The Tipton native played on the Iowa football team and lettered in both football and track in 1895 and 1896.
To put that in perspective, Wilbur Jackson was the first black player to be offered a football scholarship to Alabama where he played running back under the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant from 1971-73.
By breaking the color barrier in the Southwest Conference, Hayden Fry made it easier for other coaches, even a legend such as Bear Bryant, to do the same in recruiting.
And now 50 years later, Alabama’s roster has far more black players than white players.
If I were Kirk Ferentz, I would use his connection to Hayden Fry to help build trust with black recruits in the wake of the accusations.
And who knows, maybe Ferentz already does use Fry’s influence.
Fry passed away on Dec. 17, 2019 at the age of 90, but his legacy and his impact will live on forever.
Fry will be remembered for rebuilding downtrodden programs, and for his charisma and funny catch phrases. He led an Iowa program that hadn’t had a winning season for nearly two decades to the first of three Rose Bowl appearances in just his third season in 1981.
But Fry’s biggest accomplishment was the impact he had on so many young and impressionable lives, both black and white.
And the relationships usually started on the recruiting trail
Hayden Fry saw color because how can you not see color?
He just didn’t let somebody’s skin color determine how that person would be treated.
The past six or seven months have been tough on Kirk Ferentz, and problems still persist with 13 former black players having filed a civil rights lawsuit.
But the problems seem fixable, and there is plenty of positive reinforcement and tradition to help with fixing the problems.
Including the legacy and impact of Hayden Fry.
Today’s recruits are young enough to where some probably haven’t even heard of Hayden Fry, who retired from coaching shortly after the 1998 season.
It’s Iowa’s job to make sure recruits are made fully aware of his inspiring story.