No. 16 Iowa will honor former coach Hayden Fry with a special helmet when they take on No. 22 USC in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27. Fry passed away at the age of 90 on Dec. 17 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Iowa will remove the Tigerhawk from its helmet for just the third time in program history. The first was on Nov. 2, 1991, the day after six people died in an on-campus shooting. The second was in the 1996 Alamo Bowl, when Diane Mitchell, the mother of linebacker Mark Mitchell, was killed in a car crash.
The Hawkeyes' helmet will also include decal honoring former athletic director Bump Elliott, who served in the AD position from 1970-91. He passed away Dec. 7 at the age of 94.
"We have had two big losses in the past month, so we are going to recognize Coach Elliott with a sticker on the back of our helmet that will say "Bump" on it. That was in the works a couple weeks ago," said coach Kirk Ferentz. "Then with Coach Fry passing last week, (we) talked to the family and I think we're all in agreement that it will be a really nice thing to take the Tigerhawks off of the helmets on both sides. A precedent was set. He did that twice during his time and (the idea) was well received by his children."
Fry was the head coach at Iowa from 1979-98 and won three Big Ten titles with the program (1981, 1985, 1990). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.
Fry's career with the Hawkeyes began in 1979. He went 143-89-6 during his tenure, leading the team to 14 bowl games, three Rose Bowl berths and three double-digit win seasons. He retired following the 1998 season, one in which he privately battled prostate cancer.
He was successful as a coach prior to this stint with the Hawkeyes. He became the coach at SMU prior to the 1962 season and won the Southwest Conference title with the Mustangs in 1966. He took over at North Texas (then North Texas State) in 1973, posting a 40-23-3 record in six seasons.
