Deja Vu All Over Again

[ryanraider]

1973 we hired a metroplex reject named Hayden Fry who saved our athletic programs before moving on to sainthood in Iowa.  We had a chance to repeat history with another reject named Gary Patterson.  I will withold judgment for 3 years.

[greenminer]

36 minutes ago, ryanraider said:

1973 we hired a metroplex reject named Hayden Fry who saved our athletic programs before moving on to sainthood in Iowa.  We had a chance to repeat history with another reject named Gary Patterson.  I will withold judgment for 3 years.

@PlummMeanGreenwhat was the sentiment about Fry when he left Dallas to come to Denton? Was he really considered rejected/abandoned? I don't think for a second it is as simple as him being fired.

And Gary isn't no reject, IMO.  And he's 15+ years older than where Fry was when he came to Denton.  Gary is more like the rich successful grandpa that had a fight with the family (over NIL) and didn't want to sit at dinner table last night.

[golfingomez]

1 hour ago, ryanraider said:

1973 we hired a metroplex reject named Hayden Fry who saved our athletic programs before moving on to sainthood in Iowa.  We had a chance to repeat history with another reject named Gary Patterson.  I will withold judgment for 3 years.

wait... what's the deja vu part?

[El Paso Eagle]

6 minutes ago, golfingomez said:

wait... what's the deja vu part?

Maybe having another first post with all of his usernames

[NT80]

2 hours ago, ryanraider said:

1973 we hired a metroplex reject named Hayden Fry who saved our athletic programs before moving on to sainthood in Iowa.  We had a chance to repeat history with another reject named Gary Patterson.  I will withold judgment for 3 years.

Fry was not a reject.  He was fired at Smut after he refused to comply with boosters desire to start a slush fund to recruit players with.   NT hired him soon after he left Smut, and Smut was hit with the NCAA death penalty a few years later because of the slush fund. 

Patterson had become a madman at TCU.  He belittled media and needed a forced break from coaching. 

[UNTLifer]

4 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Fry was not a reject.  He was fired at Smut after he refused to comply with boosters desire to start a slush fund to recruit players with.   NT hired him soon after he left Smut, and Smut was hit with the NCAA death penalty a few years later because of the slush fund.  

Is that correct?  Fry left SMU after the '72 season and SMU wasn't hit with the "Death Penalty" until 1987.

Answering my own question, I did a little search.  He did leave over the alumni wanting to start a secret NIL 50 years before the NIL was approved.  They were hit with violations 5 times prior to receiving the Death Penalty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayden_Fry

"Hayden Fry compiled a 49–66–1 record in 11 seasons at SMU, including the school's only three winning seasons since the late 1940s. In Fry's autobiography, Fry stated that he believed his firing was related to several boosters' desire to start a slush fund to pay players and recruits. SMU was the second-smallest school in the Southwest Conference, and had found it difficult to compete over the last two decades against schools double its size or more. When he refused to go along with the plan, Fry said, the boosters pressured the school's new president to fire him. As it turned out, SMU would be hit with NCAA sanctions five times after Fry's departure before having its program completely shut down for the 1987 season due to a massive litany of misconduct. Most of the violations were related to the slush fund Fry had opposed several years earlier."

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by UNTLifer