Iowa Football: Top 10 head coaches in program history

2. Hayden Fry: 1979-1998

Career Record: 143-89-6

Awards and Accomplishments: 1981, ’85, ’90 Big Ten Champions, 1981, ’90-’91 Big Ten Coach of the Year, College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2003

The man who is dubbed the savior of Iowa football is legendary head coach Hayden Fry. Fry played his college football at Baylor as a quarterback from 1947 to 1950. Following a military career, Fry returned to high school alma mater of Odessa High School and led them for three seasons before returning to Baylor as an assistant for two seasons. Fry then spent a season at Arkansas under Frank Broyles before becoming head coach at SMU.

Fry spent 11 seasons leading the Mustangs program, best known for breaking the color barrier in the Southwest Conference with the recruitment of Jerry LeVias. Fry won one Southwest Conference Championship until his resignation in 1972, following an NCAA Investigation. He then took over the reigns at North Texas for six seasons, leading them to a 40-23-3 record before yet another NCAA Investigation allowed his exit.

Fry came to Iowa City in the fall of 1979 and two seasons later, had the Hawkeyes playing in the Rose Bowl in one of the best rebuilding jobs in all of college football. He would lead Iowa to two more Rose Bowl’s and multiple top 25 finishes. Fry’s best team was undoubtedly his 1985 squad, which spent a good portion of the season ranked number one in the nation. The Hawkeyes would finish 10-2, the best record in school history at the time.

At the end of his tenure, it was evident that the game was starting to pass Fry by, and it bottomed out with a 3-8 record in 1998, a year in which Fry was secretly receiving treatment for prostate cancer as well. Following the 1998 season, Fry retired as Iowa’s all-time winningest coach, however the final man on this list is about set to break that coveted record.