Hayden's Legacy Goes Well Beyond Iowa

[jfwolfe]

I think we all need to remember this story and Hayden's other legacy besides being at our university.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...-Hayden-Fry-s-death-This-is-like-14916029.php

 

[Northside Hawk]

I think we all need to remember this story and Hayden's other legacy besides being at our university.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...-Hayden-Fry-s-death-This-is-like-14916029.php

SMU would become the very booster driven, crimimal outlaw program that Hayden would never allow it to be, and contribute to his dismissal in 1972.

The party went on at SMU for a while, but the other shoe would finally drop. The NCAA administered the death penalty in February, 1987. It would take decades for SMU to become even semi relevant and may have been the beginning of the end of the Southwest Conference, much of which was run by the same greasy boosters and shady administrators as SMU was. Especially the public state schools. Even the governor largely buried his head in the sand over the debauchery that was goimg on.

 

[Hawknigh]

Is that true? Was he run out of SMU because he broke the color barrier in recruiting? Wow.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Is that true? Was he run out of SMU because he broke the color barrier in recruiting? Wow.

I think he was run from SMU more so because he wouldn't allow certain boosters to have access to the program. Like the ones who would eventually get the death penalty levied on the program.

His own administration also wanted him to bend certain rules in regards to recruiting and he wouldn't do it. But recruiting African American players likely had nothing to do with it. By the time he was fired following the 1972 season virtually all SWC (and SEC) schools had broken the color barrier. I think Jerry was simply falling on a grenade for his coach. Running Hayden for being a trailblazer in African American recruiting, even in 1972, seems like a little too harsh of an explanation. Then again a degree of mystery could remain. In a Sports Illustrated article covering the 1985 Iowa vs Michigan game Hayden was quoted as saying he was never given a specific reason for his firing.

 

[Hawknigh]

I think he was run from SMU more so because he wouldn't allow certain boosters to have access to the program. Like the ones who would eventually get the death penalty levied on the program.

His own administration also wanted him to bend certain rules in regards to recruiting and he wouldn't do it. But recruiting African American players likely had nothing to do with it. By the time he was fired following the 1972 season virtually all SWC (and SEC) schools had broken the color barrier. I think Jerry was simply falling on a grenade for his coach. Running Hayden for being a trailblazer in African American recruiting, even in 1972, seems like a little too harsh of an explanation. Then again a degree of mystery could remain. In a Sports Illustrated article covering the 1985 Iowa vs Michigan game Hayden was quoted as saying he was never given a specific reason for his firing.

Interesting that the mire of SMU played a significant (and positive) part in Fry's career. He got out at the right time.

 

[Robowe]

Posted in another thread ... here's the North Texas perspective.