Former Iowa football coach Hayden Fry saw something special in Bo Pelini when Pelini played free safety at Ohio State from 1987-90.
Fry saw the rugged tenacity. He noted the intelligence and savvy.
Maybe the Ohio kid would be a good head coach someday, Fry surmised.
"I was raised on a farm (near Odessa, Texas)," Fry said Monday. "My daddy told me when I was just a kid, he said, 'Son, I don't know what you're going to do or become when you grow up. But if you're going to be a winner, if you're going to be successful, you've got to surround yourself with winners.' That became my philosophy. I hired coaches who were just super folks."
In 1991, Fry gave Pelini his first coaching job, as a graduate assistant for the Hawkeyes. Plenty of Nebraska fans would tell you Bo went on to become a pretty good head coach.
The 82-year-old Fry, who retired in 1998 after two decades as Hawkeyes head coach, counts 21 of his former assistants who went on to become head coaches in college or the NFL.
The list also includes Barry Alvarez, Bret Bielema, Jim Leavitt, Dan McCarney, Bill Snyder, Bob Stoops and Mike Stoops.
http://huskerextra.com/sports/football/article_40ba8cb2-f8a8-5a19-8f5b-9b76b0794dc4.html
