Iowa Coaching Career
Hayden Fry was hired as Iowa's 25th head football coach after the 1978 season. Fry had never been to Iowa, but he knew and liked Bump Elliott, by this time the university's athletic director. Iowa had had 17 straight non-winning seasons, but Fry was impressed at the fan support for a program that had struggled for so long.
Fry turned his attention to changing a losing attitude and starting new traditions at Iowa. Hayden would not celebrate close losses or moral victories. He hired a marketing group to create the Tigerhawk, a logo to represent the University of Iowa's athletic programs. Since both shared the colors of black and gold, Fry gained permission from the Pittsburgh Steelers, the dominant NFL program of the time, to overhaul Iowa’s uniforms in the Steelers’ image. Fry had the team "swarm" onto the field together as they left the locker room, holding hands in a show of solidarity. And Fry had the visitors’ locker room painted pink. Fry, a psychology major at Baylor, knew that pink is occasionally used in jails and mental institutions to relax and pacify the residents, and Fry claimed that it might have the same effect on the visiting team. Principally, though, Fry hoped that the unusual color would distract and fluster the opposing players and coaches. Visiting head coaches, particularly Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler, would occasionally try to cover the pink walls with paper to shield their players from the color.
On the field, Hayden assembled a terrific coaching staff, bringing his assistant coaches with him from North Texas, including Bill Brashier, his defensive coordinator and a childhood friend from Eastland, Texas, and Bill Snyder, his offensive coordinator. Fry retained some of the Iowa coaches from the previous staff, including Dan McCarney and Bernie Wyatt. Finally, Fry hired the head coach at Mason City High School, Barry Alvarez. Fry would later add Kirk Ferentz as his offensive line coach and hire his former players Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Chuck Long, and Bret Bielema as assistant coaches. Fry also gave former USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt one of his first breaks in college football, making him a graduate assistant coach at Iowa in 1989.
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