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Former UNT coach Hayden Fry to CFB Hall of Fame
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Great article about former UNT coach Hayden Fry.

Football: Mind over matter

Former UNT coach used head games to his advantage

09:59 AM CDT on Friday, August 13, 2004

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Jordan Case was warming up for the North Texas football team’s spring game one afternoon in 1970 while wondering if the weather was going to ruin his day.

Case could see clouds rolling in on the horizon and cast a worried look toward his coach, Hayden Fry.
Courtesy photo
North Texas coach Hayden Fry stands on the sideline during an Eagles game in the 1970s. Fry will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this weekend.

"I told coach Fry I hoped it wouldn’t rain," Case said. "He asked me if I could control it, so I told him no. He looked at me and told me that if I couldn’t control it, I shouldn’t worry about it."

The former UNT quarterback relaxed, put the weather out of his mind and tossed six touchdown passes.

The way Fry instilled confidence in Case that day was just one example of how the former UNT coach could inspire his players, thanks to his skills as a psychologist. The talent is one that served Fry well in a coaching career that will be commemorated this weekend when he is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

"Going into the College Football Hall of Fame is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," Fry said. "There are a lot of people coming in for the ceremony. It will be a wonderful time and a tribute to the schools that I worked at."

The honor is one he attributes in part to studying psychology in college and putting it into practice while turning around struggling programs at UNT, SMU and finally Iowa. Fry posted a combined record of 232-178-10 in his career.

"Psychology was definitely a part of my success," Fry said. "At the places I coached, the major motivation was to change the image, attitude and results of the team. I had to establish a positive attitude among the players, coaches and administrators."

Former North Texas linebacker Burks Washington was one of a few former UNT players and assistant coaches who said Fry brought out the best in players with a unique combination of preparation, motivation and a few quirky physiological tricks.

"Everyone trusted Hayden and believed in him," said Washington, who played at UNT from 1975-78. "He talked to you like a man and told you what he expected of you, which was to be prepared and do a good job."

The challenge is one presented all college football coaches. The difference with Fry was his approach was unusual, and highly effective.

One of Fry’s first orders of business was to change visible characteristics of each losing program he took over. When Fry took over as UNT’s coach in 1973, he immediately tossed out the uniforms the Eagles wore the year before when they finished with a 1-10 record.

The Eagles began wearing a lighter color of green and adopted a new logo.

"We changed everything because they had not been winning," Fry said. "The players at North Texas and SMU were hungry when I got there. Players like that are easy to show what it takes to win."

UNT posted a 5-5-1 record in Fry’s first year and won the Missouri Valley Conference championship. The Eagles later dropped out of the league to play an independent schedule.

UNT struggled at first, but quickly became a power, thanks to Fry’s unique methods for motivating his players, and planting seeds of doubt in an opponent.

Fry is famous for ploys like painting opponents’ locker rooms pink. He used another psychological ploy before a game against Michigan during his tenure at Iowa.

Fry told his center and guard to switch in warm-ups before the game. After watching the ball skip past the punter on the ground and sail over his head a few times, Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler walked by and asked Fry if he was really going to ask the player to snap in the game.

The move left Fry’s players laughing.

"I did that to give Michigan something to think about and it kept our team loose," Fry said. "We had a blast. You play better when you are loose."

Fry combined his philosophy of keeping players relaxed with intense study for every game.

"The night before a game we always watched a motivational movie together," Case said. "Then the assistant coaches would quiz us on the opponent. If a coach called on you, you had better have that answer. That helped us build camaraderie and confidence."

Fry knew confidence would be just one of the edges UNT needed when the Eagles prepared to play Tennessee during the 1975 season.

The Volunteers were among the nation’s elite programs and had homefield advantage.

"Hayden is one of the best motivators for a big game," said former UNT assistant coach Andy Everest said. "Before we played Tennessee, we worked on the fact that we were great underdogs."

Fry drove home the point when he invited a former Tennessee player to speak before the game.

"He talked about the history of Tennessee," Fry said. "Knowing about it made the game more special for us."

The Mean Green unveiled an unexpected game plan just after hearing about the Volunteers’ storied history. UNT had thrown the ball on a consistent basis throughout the opening weeks of the season before completely changing its offense to emphasize a running game that helped UNT knock off Volunteers, 21-14, in a game that still ranks among the greatest wins in the program’s history.

Winning the 1973 Missouri Valley Conference title and beating Tennessee were just two of the highlights of Fry’s tenure at UNT, where he finished with a 40-23-3 record.

Former UNT assistant coach Bill Brashier attributed those wins in part to the quiet confidence Fry inspired in his team.

"The main thing he did with all of the teams he coached was to make sure that we went into every game thinking that we were going to win," Brashier said. "His players bought into that."

By the end of Fry’s tenure at UNT, his players were not the only ones who believed in the Eagles. UNT posted a 10-1 record in 1977 and then went 9-2 in 1978. Iowa soon came to talk to Fry about leaving UNT to become the Hawkeyes’ coach.

"Hayden was not the type to go out and look for a job," Everest said. "Iowa came in and made a great offer to take him and all of his assistant coaches. They came after Hayden very strong."

Fry left for Iowa, where he continued to build his Hall of Fame career, but his feelings of admiration for UNT never wavered.

"I would have never left UNT except that we were 9-2 and 10-1 my last two years and didn’t get a bowl bid."

UNT’s struggles to earn a bowl bid were one of the few problems Fry faced that none of his skills as a coach and psychologist could help him solve.

Another one of those dilemmas came the Monday after UNT beat Tennessee.

"I got a telephone call from Tennessee’s athletic director who told me I would be getting a $10,000 check in the mail," Fry said. "He said they were not going to play us the next year, even though we had a two-year contract. I told him that we were going to make $250,000 from the second game of the series for the department. He said that I didn’t read the fine print of the contract that said that if either team didn’t fulfill the contract, it would get $10,000. That was it."

Finding out that Tennessee was backing out of the contract because of the success UNT enjoyed against the Volunteers represented a turning point for the Mean Green, who had struggled only a few years earlier.

Those struggles quickly ended after Fry spent a few years changing the attitude of UNT’s players.

"I can’t pinpoint any one thing that made Hayden such a good coach, but he respected everyone and everyone respected him," Case said. "A lot of times it is not what you tell someone, it’s how you say it."
08-13-2004 11:13 AM
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