Question for Fry Era Fans

[Side Show Joe]

I'm sure he got a nice raise when he left for Iowa, but does anyone know what he was making here when he left, and how much Iowa paid him to leave Denton? I know he was unhappy about not getting bowl invites, but I guess I'm just wondering how much we were under paying back then. I hope when the wins come and other programs start sniffing around coach Mac, we will be able to keep him.

[eulessismore]

I'm sure he got a nice raise when he left for Iowa, but does anyone know what he was making here when he left, and how much Iowa paid him to leave Denton? I know he was unhappy about not getting bowl invites, but I guess I'm just wondering how much we were under paying back then. I hope when the wins come and other programs start sniffing around coach Mac, we will be able to keep him.

This is just off the top of my head. We were only able to pay him well enough to keep him as long as we did by combining his head coaching position with athletic director, and it was stipulated that not be the case at Iowa. It was mentioned after the death of the great basketball coach in that era, Bill Blakely (sp?), that Fry hired him. I thin at one time head football coach and AD were more commonly combined positions than in recent years, but it wasn't a good situation, even in the1970's.

Also, I'm wondering if it isn't a little too early to start the "how do we keep "coaches name here" after they start winning big. Maybe it's a situation that could remedy itself if things go well.

[SilverEagle]

Eulessismore is correct about how Fry was paid. He was paid two salaries (HC and AD), but that was a common situation back then. Most head coaches (mostly notably Darrell Royal) were also the athletic directors. I think that the last HC/AD we had was Corkey Nelson....or maybe Dennis Parker.

I don't know how much Fry's total salary was here, but I'm very confident that Iowa easily topped it. And Eulessismore is correct about the real reason for Fry's departure, which was (just like what women and minorities in the business world have to deal with) our apparent glass ceiling in D-1 college football regarding bowl games. PLUS, I'm sure he knew that if Jitter Nolan ever went away, he would lose his main buffer to the anti-sports faction at North Texas. And he would then have daily battles over every step forward that he wanted to take.

However, Hayden Fry would not have been able to make the changes in North Texas football and start the VERY NECESSARY cultural changes here, if he had not been the AD, as well as the HC.

Under his tenure here, the Mean Green club was started. The NT dancers were started (they were originally called the Eagle Dolls). And the Eagle Angels were started.

Edited August 2, 2011 by SilverEagle

[KRAM1]

And Eulessismore is correct about the real reason for Fry's departure, which was (just like what women and minorities in the business world have to deal with)

You just couldn't help yourself could you, Silver?

[letsgiveacheer]

Wasn't there also some story (or something similar) about the woman's bb coach coming into his office complaining that someone had spilled water on the court and did not clean it up? He said to himself something like, "what am I doing in this place?"

I'm sure the demands of being an AD along with head coach were pretty great although he did get to drive an apple green car!

Silver, one small point...the dancers were called the Mean Green Dollies as I recall.

[SilverEagle]

Wasn't there also some story (or something similar) about the woman's bb coach coming into his office complaining that someone had spilled water on the court and did not clean it up? He said to himself something like, "what am I doing in this place?"

I'm sure the demands of being an AD along with head coach were pretty great although he did get to drive an apple green car!

Silver, one small point...the dancers were called the Mean Green Dollies as I recall.

I assume you are talking about this story in the DesMoines Register in 2004.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040704/SPORTS11/50708005/Hayden-Fry-University-Iowa-2004

"Hayden Fry knew it was time to move on when the pressing matter of the day was the layout of the women's locker room in the new basketball facility at North Texas State.

"As athletic director at North Texas State, I'd just hustled $26 million to build a new basketball arena," Fry, 75, recalled last week. "The women's coach knocked on my door, said there's an emergency and could I walk across the street with her to the arena.

"When I got there, we talked 35 minutes about how to arrange the women's locker room. I hustled $26 million and we've got an emergency with the bathroom.

"I walked back across the street and said to myself, 'Fry, you're out of your mind. We're going someplace else.' ''

The groudbreaking for the "Super Pit" was in 1972, and it opened in 1973.

As much as I love Hayden Fry, and what he did for our program, he told the DesMoines Register a big fat lie.

[letsgiveacheer]

The groudbreaking for the "Super Pit" was in 1972, and it opened in 1973.

As much as I love Hayden Fry, and what he did for our program, he told the DesMoines Register a big fat lie.

[VideoEagle]

As much as I love Hayden Fry, and what he did for our program, he told the DesMoines Register a big fat lie.

Yea, Hayden was a great coach, but he was no Saint Hayden as sometimes is implied. I still wish we'd been able to keep him or at least Bill Snider.

[greenjoe]

I was a huge Fry fan as well. But this demonstrates the Coach Fry was helping himself ("...Fry, you're out of your mind. We're going somewplace else."). There's nothing wrong with this attitide, but Hayden Fry wasn't at North Texas for his health.

Does anyone remember who the women's coach mentioned in Silver's story would have been ?

(And the dance team was called the North Texas Dollies.)

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[UNTLifer]

Does anyone remember who the women's coach mentioned in Silver's story would have been ?

I think this was Slinker's first year. just kidding

Edited August 2, 2011 by UNTLifer

[wardly]

i think he was making about $75,000. when they split the job again, the ad[ Andy, i can't remember his last name], got about $35,000.

[GrandGreen]

I was a huge Fry fan as well. But this demonstrates the Coach Fry was helping himself ("...Fry, you're out of your mind. We're going somewplace else."). There's nothing wrong with this attitide, but Hayden Fry wasn't at North Texas for his health.

Does anyone remember who the women's coach mentioned in Silver's story would have been ?

(And the dance team was called the North Texas Dollies.)

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I think the dancers were called the song leaders, a name I never understood.? Fry's official starting salary was in the 60's as I recall. He did relinquich the AD post later in his NT career to concentrate on football. He had nothing to do with the construction of the Super Pit unless he did it from SMU.

[GrayEagle]

I assume you are talking about this story in the DesMoines Register in 2004.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040704/SPORTS11/50708005/Hayden-Fry-University-Iowa-2004

"Hayden Fry knew it was time to move on when the pressing matter of the day was the layout of the women's locker room in the new basketball facility at North Texas State.

"As athletic director at North Texas State, I'd just hustled $26 million to build a new basketball arena," Fry, 75, recalled last week. "The women's coach knocked on my door, said there's an emergency and could I walk across the street with her to the arena.

"When I got there, we talked 35 minutes about how to arrange the women's locker room. I hustled $26 million and we've got an emergency with the bathroom.

"I walked back across the street and said to myself, 'Fry, you're out of your mind. We're going someplace else.' ''

The groudbreaking for the "Super Pit" was in 1972, and it opened in 1973.

As much as I love Hayden Fry, and what he did for our program, he told the DesMoines Register a big fat lie.

Mostly, it was just Hayden being Hayden. He could spin a tale with the best of them. Besides that, while Hayden made the major AD decisions, Andy Everest did more of the day-to-day work that went with the athletic director's job.

I'm trying to remember his salary figure but I just can't come with it. I seem to recall that our salary for both jobs was about the same as his coaches' salary at SMU or maybe slightly less.