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https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...en-fry-dies-90
One of the B10 coaching greats. He restored the football program at Iowa. I remember growing up you never had to worry about playing Iowa. Frye changed that, and built some great teams in the 80s. He laid the foundation. And then of course there's the list of future head coaches got their start under Frye's system.
Chuck Long wrecked havoc on the conference.
RIP Hayden
I always liked his "cool" look in the sidelines. He did bring respectability to Iowa football. He made them competitive and occasionally a winner of the Big 10. RIP Hayden Fry
RIP Coach
Growing up in Iowa, I remember how bad Iowa was. Absolute dreck. Then they decided to hire this Texan who had all these funny sayings. I remember distinctly his first season they played Nebraska in an out of conference game. This is when Nebraska was at the height of their powers. Iowa lost 24-21 and people were trying to tell Fry it was a moral victory. He wasn't having any of it. He said publicly they should have won that game and he was angry they didn't. Maybe he didn't tell the team that but everyone else knew he was a serious guy. The next year they got beat 57-0 but the next season they won 10-7. That was the team that went to the Rose Bowl and people were just going out of their minds. Fry was somewhat deified in Iowa but he wasn't immune to criticism when things went poorly like any coach is. Their program was in no way a world beater but after the almost two decade malaise, just going to a bowl game was euphoric for Iowa fans (and this was in the day where they weren't 40some bowl games.) He was always good to the fans too. One of the things many people don't realize he was responsible for was the desegregation of the SWC when he went to SMU. He told them he wasn't going to accept the gig unless he could integrate the team (and the league) back in 1966.
Only great Coach SMU has ever had. Refused to go along with boosters about putting together a slush fund to pay for recruits and their families and was fired as a result.
Put North Texas Football on the map.
Great, great, great grandfather fought alongside Sam Houston in the Battle of San Jacinto. Was a First Family of Texas.
As a QB, won the Texas State Championship from a small school when all Texas schools, regardless of size, was placed into one huge bracket.
Wow! Good stuff. History buff. Been reading up more on Houston and the Battle of San Jacinto. Getting ready to buy the book "Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers" by Kilmeade.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingspoint
So much of the Texas history is in Spanish, the Spanish of the 15th-18th centuries, and stored in archives in Spain. If you can find someone who has gotten permission to access this treasure trove of information and who has the scholarly background to translate it, you'll discover facts as presented first-hand at the time of Spanish rule not yet written about on the subject. Their accounts will differ from accounts written by the Texans and Louisianans.Quote:
Originally Posted by GAC
There is now an available website to the National Spanish Archives: http://pares.mcu.es
I find Kilmeade to be a very poor writer, an even poorer scholar, and even poorer researcher...nothing but a video celebrity on the likes of Kim Kardashian. I would never read a history book with his name on it after going through his book, "The Secret Six". He's neither a writer nor a journalist. He's a face in front of a camera.Quote:
Originally Posted by GAC
The original 1939 book on the American Revolutionary espionage (where his collaborator got almost all his information) is much better than his book, "The Secret Six", which he didn't even write, but lent his name to sell the book that AMC made a mini-series of. I couldn't stomach my way past the second season of that series, trying three times to do so.
Here's the original book, free to read (might have to copy and paste, I checked and it works):
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b60617&view=1up&seq=12
Morton Pennypacker, who put together the greatest collection of Long Island Archives all by himself over his lifetime (more collectively than every University and historical society on Long Island), is the person who discovered the identities of Washington's spies. He wasn't able to identify the woman, but Kilmeade's writer wasn't able to, either, even though Kilmeade graduated from Long Island University, and should have been able to research through Pennypacker's 100,000+ archives along with any new discoveries since the 1939 publication. But, that's not what Kilmeade was going after. He saw an opportunity to reprint somebody else's research and place his name on it to make money, offering nothing more than the original work (actually, much less) gave the reader. Kilmeade is an opportunist, as I'm sure his Alamo book will reflect also.
Pennypacker deduced the identities because he recognized Woodhull's signature from one of his many L.I. documents, then started following the trail from there using time and place of other documents he possessed for the many players involved. His research is as interesting as the spy ring itself.
I don't know that much about Kilmeade. Thanks for the info. Are you referring to that series called Turn: Washington Spies? I watched a few episodes before I stopped watching. I've never been a fan though of any series, whether AMC or whoever. They're nothing but glorified soap operas whose goal is to keep you obligated to watch each and every week to find out what happens with the cliff-hanger from the week before (LOL).Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingspoint
Thanks for the Spanish archive website. I saved it. From a superficial standpoint .... and when I look at our Southwestern states, which was once Spanish Territory ... Yeah, the Spanish owned (ruled) the area - but it was desert, not choice real estate, and pretty much uninhabitable. And then of course there were also those "native" tribes who were living there long before any of us got here. But nobody wanted to live there (LOL). When the English, French, and Spanish came to this Hemisphere - the Spanish really got the raw part of the deal IMO.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.... or a real estate deal with Americans. Stephen Austin was a realtor who saw a great opportunity. The Mexican government has this vast region it's owned for ages, yet has been pretty much sparsely populated due to it's climate. You even get an agreement that has incentives for them to migrate there. All they had to do was be good Catholics and live under their rule as Mexican citizens. Sure, sure, we'll do that ... until our numbers increase and it's time to revolt (LOL).
Totally agree about the "series" stuff, though I like the Cornel Wilde movie version, which came out after the 1939 book, as it was filmed using the original Philipse Manor on Manhattan, which you can google earth today and look at it. (The Philipse dynasty is a great history archive of Manhattan.)
That Texas independence thing. It's an American ideal I agree with. Everyone needs to mind their own business. I am not responsible for anyone's happiness, nobody is responsible for mine, I don't know what's good for you and you don't know what's good for me.
That copy-and-paste link I gave you of Pennypacker's "General Washington's Spies" is a great read.
(I do like the "Fargo" fiction series and the "Better Call Saul" fiction series.)
Just to go back to Hayden Fry...would have loved to have met him.
I said, Abraham Woodhull, but it was Robert Townsend, too, who had remained a mystery for 150 years, and was the one (Culper, Jr.) historians seeked to discover the most (Woodhull being Culper, Sr.).
Thanks for that reference. I'm going to purchase that Pennypacker book.