Hayden Fry gets warm wishes prior to birthday
Hayden Fry received some warm well-wishes Friday from the frigid Hawkeye state on the eve of his 86th birthday.
Organizers of Coralville's annual FRYfest serenaded the former University of Iowa football coach with "Happy Birthday to You" via speakerphone during a kickoff event for the 2015 festival's preparations.
"I spent 22 or 23 years in Iowa, I've been out here 16, and my rump hasn't thawed out yet," quipped Fry from his home in Mesquite, Nev., where he and wife, Shirley, retired after his final season at Iowa in 1998.
This year's FRYfest — which is scheduled for Sept. 4 and marks the event's seventh year — will not only honor the Hall of Fame coach, but also the 30th anniversary of Fry launching the America Needs Farmers campaign.
Midway through the 1985 season, with Iowa and the rest of the Midwest mired in the farm crisis, Fry placed gold "ANF" decals on the top-ranked Hawkeyes' helmets for their showdown at Ohio State. The stickers became a fixture next to the Tigerhawk until the NCAA enacted a rule in 1992 forcing teams to remove such decals, but Kirk Ferentz reintroduced them on helmets in 2009, and they've remained since.
"Hayden Fry always had a clear perspective and understanding of the platform college football has in our culture, and how that platform can be used to address issues beyond football," said Dale Arens, director of licensing for UI Athletics and the director of the UI Athletics Hall of Fame.
Arens said Fry has always been a visionary, dating back to his days at Southern Methodist University in 1960s, where he recruited Jerry LeVias to be the first black player in the Southwest Conference. Fry demonstrated that same social conscience at Iowa with the ANF campaign, which raised awareness for the plight of farmers, Arens said.
"Today, just as it did 30 years ago, it is with great pride and purpose that the ANF brand continues to bring focus to our state, to our way of life, to our community," Arens said.
Panel discussions and programming pieces at this year's FRYfest will focus on ANF, said Allie Howarth, director of special events for the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The 2014 FRYfest set an attendance record for its trade show, which drew about 10,000 people, and another 5,000 attended the evening's concert, Howarth said.
Fry, who coached countless players raised on Iowa farms during his 20 seasons at UI, said there's "not anything more truthful" than the statement "America needs farmers."
"That was back when they really needed some help," Fry said of the decision to put the decals on the helmets. "They were very much down, particularly in the state of Iowa. You can't believe all the friends I've made through the years, farmers who were very appreciative of the publicity we gave them by putting ANF on the helmet."
The focus on ANF is among several new wrinkles FRYfest organizers have planned for this year's event, which will be held at Coralville's Iowa River Landing the day before Iowa's Sept. 5 season opener against Illinois State.
The festival also plans to partner with Operation Hat Trick, an organization that benefits wounded service members, by selling Hawkeye branded gear in honor of Fry's time as a Marine. Proceeds will go to the Johnson County Commission of Veterans Affairs Office.
And festival organizers also are commissioning six new Herky on Parade statues that will be auctioned during the trade show. Last year, 84 Herky statues were displayed throughout the community before being auctioned off to raise more than $110,000 for the United Way of Johnson and Washington counties.
Fry returned to FRYfest last fall, where he sat on a panel with nine former Hawkeye quarterbacks who played for him. During Friday's phone call, Fry called his time at Iowa some of the happiest days of his life.
"Wonderful coaching staff and trainers, my secretaries, of course Bump Elliott, my A.D., and later Bob Bowlsby. Being associated with Lute Olson, Tom Davis and that bunch — it was just a great, great experience," Fry said. "But above all, the players. The majority of my players graduated, and most have done extremely well now.
"I could not ask for a more exciting, wonderful experience than being in Iowa all those years."
Reach Josh O'Leary at joleary@press-citizen.com or 887-5415, and follow him on Twitter at @JD_OLeary.
2015 FRYfest
The festival will be Sept. 4 at the Iowa River Landing in Coralville.
For more information, go to www.fryfest.com.