Leadership 101: Look for the Bell-Cows!
Wow…I love it when God gives insight through unique ways. Today I ran across this recent interview of retired Iowa football coach Hayden Fry. Fry coached at Iowa from 1979-1998 and brought Iowa out of nearly two decades of football futility, taking the Hawks to national prominence. One of Fry’s greatest accomplishments was recruiting great young guys to be around him and building those great young men into great leaders. As I look at my role as senior pastor, my prayer is that I can be more like a Coach Fry, who sees the great potential in the people around me and call them to be “bell-cows” for Jesus! Enjoy the read!
Official Sports Report: September 14, 2009
FRY LOOKED FOR ‘BELL COWS’ TO LEAD THE HAWKEYES
Elliott discovered the ultimate leader in Fry
by Darren Miller, OSR Contributing Editor
Former UI football coach Hayden Fry recently revealed a secret that led to 143 football victories at the University of Iowa from 1979-98. Although his coaching methods and psychological maneuvers were some of the most elaborate in the nation, Fry offered one simple example of what he thought helped the Hawkeyes succeed.
“I quizzed my assistant coaches on who the leaders of the team would be,” Fry told a smattering of media at a press conference Sept. 4 inside the Coralville Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. “I think one of the reasons for our success was that after we found out who the leaders were, I brought them in and went over a list of things you needed to do to win. I called those players the bell cows. All you guys ever raised on a farm know about a bell cow. That’s the old cow that wherever it goes, the rest of the herd follows; so we always put a bell around that cow because when you heard that bell ringing out in the pasture, you knew where the whole herd was located.”
Bump Elliott was athletics director at the UI from 1970-91, and following a 42-7 loss at Michigan State on Nov. 25, 1978, he decided to make a head coaching switch. Bob Commings, who was 18-37 in five seasons with the Hawkeyes, was replaced by Fry, who was coming off four consecutive winning campaigns at North Texas State.
In Fry’s third season at Iowa, the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten Championship and played Washington in the Rose Bowl. Thirteen more bowl invitations followed, including two more Rose Bowls. Only four times during Fry’s tenure did the Hawkeyes finish with a sub-.500 record in conference play.
The “bell cow” theory must have had some merit.
“I tried to find a bell cow at each position,” Fry said. “I told the players that you would be my bell cow – you’re going to be my leader.”
Fry called coming to the University of Iowa “a blessing.” He said he was fortunate to be surrounded by excellent student-athletes and loyal fans.
“I felt like we had the greatest psychological edge at Iowa because I inherited a group of young men who had been called losers, told they couldn’t win and they had their rumps kicked for a long, long period of time,” Fry said. “They were the easiest people in the world to motivate. I’ve been very, very fortunate to be associated with winners.”
Always a progressive thinker, Fry recruited Jerry LeVias to Southern Methodist University in 1965, making LeVias the first African-American scholarship student-athlete in the Southwest Conference. Fry also operated out of a spread offensive formation decades before the term spread offense was even invented.
“We were playing Indiana (Sept. 8, 1979) and on the first play my team lined up with nobody in the backfield except the quarterback,” Fry said. “All the people in Kinnick Stadium stood up and started clapping before we even snapped the ball.”
It seems that Fry wasn’t the only person in search of bell cows. Elliott found one, too.
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