High School and Assistant Coach
In 1955, Hayden returned to Odessa as a teacher and assistant football coach. The following season, Odessa head coach and former Texas A&M freshmen varsity coach Cooper Robbins was promoted to athletic director, and Hayden Fry took his first head coaching job. At 26 years old, he was coaching the high school he had led to the state title less than 10 years earlier.
He served as Odessa's head football coach for three years. During that time, he first met and befriended the head coach at Texas A&M, Bear Bryant. Fry also continued as a history teacher at Odessa, and one of his students, Roy Orbison, later became a musical star.
After the 1958 season, the new head football coach at Baylor hired Hayden Fry as an assistant coach. Fry spent two years at Baylor coaching the defensive backs. In 1960, Baylor had an 8–2 record in the regular season and finished the year with a one point loss to Florida in the Gator Bowl. That season, Fry's defensive secondary helped Baylor lead the nation in pass defense.
Fry left Baylor to become an assistant coach at Arkansas under Frank Broyles. Broyles had been Fry's position coach when Fry played at Baylor. Fry was the offensive backfield coach at Arkansas in 1961. Arkansas won the Southwest Conference co-championship with an 8–2 record and narrowly lost the Sugar Bowl to Bear Bryant's Alabama squad. After one year at Arkansas, Southern Methodist University tabbed Fry as their next head football coach for the 1962 season.
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