Hayden Fry - Head Coaching Career

Head Coaching Career

The SMU Mustangs were members of the Southwest Conference at the time. Fry won the conference coach of the year award in his first season. In 1963, SMU opened the season with a 27–16 loss to a Michigan team coached by Bump Elliott, Fry's future boss at Iowa. SMU lost to Oregon in the 1963 Sun Bowl, 21–14. After the season, Fry was also appointed as SMU's athletic director.

When Fry took the job at SMU, he was promised that he would be allowed to recruit black athletes. Fry and the school wanted to make certain that the player they recruited was not only a good athlete but also a good student and citizen and someone with the mental toughness to be one of the first black players in conference history. Fry found that player in Jerry LeVias. LeVias was a great player, an exceptional student, and mentally tough. He had never had discipline problems and was deeply religious. LeVias was the perfect player for SMU.

Jerry LeVias had many other scholarship offers to good integrated schools, but he chose to attend SMU. LeVias became the first black player signed to a football scholarship in the Southwest Conference. In 1966, LeVias made his debut, one week after John Hill Westbrook of Baylor became the first black player to play for a conference team. Fry received abuse for recruiting a black player to SMU in the form of hate mail and threatening phone calls, but he downplayed the treatment, because the harassment of LeVias was much, much worse.

SMU had an 8–2 record in 1966 and won its first Southwest Conference title in 18 years. LeVias was named to the all-conference team and handled the racial incidents well. SMU lost in the Cotton Bowl Classic to Georgia but finished the year ranked #10 in the nation. SMU had a down year in 1967, but LeVias was again an all-conference selection.

In 1968, SMU went 7–3 and defeated Oklahoma in the Bluebonnet Bowl. LeVias was selected as an all-conference player as a senior for the third time. Fry's Mustangs then had just a 12–20 record over the next three years from 1969–1971. That put Fry's job in jeopardy, and rumors started to swirl after Fry's Mustangs started the 1972 season at 4–4. Not even a three game winning streak could save Fry. After a 7–4 season in 1972, Fry was fired at SMU, which robbed the Mustangs of a bowl berth.

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.

Hayden Fry was hired as the coach and athletic director at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) before the 1973 season. North Texas appeared to be on the verge of dropping from Division I football or even ending the sport altogether. In 1973, North Texas won a share of the Missouri Valley Conference title. However, North Texas left the conference after the year in hopes of joining a more football-oriented conference. While Fry was there, North Texas never did. He also coached three of his sons while at North Texas.

Fry turned North Texas' program around, compiling a 40–23–3 record over six seasons from 1973–1978. In his final four seasons, North Texas had winning records, including a 10–1 mark in 1977 and a 9–2 record in 1978. Still, North Texas never received a bowl invitation. Fry wanted to go to a school where he would be assured of a bowl game with a solid record and where he did not need to also serve as athletic director.