There also are more black players on Iowa’s Leadership Group than white players for the first time under Kirk Ferentz. It seems highly unlikely that a team being torn apart by racial unrest could have stayed unified on the football field, especially after losing its first two games. Only time and behavior will determine if the culture has changed under Kirk Ferentz, but there are some encouraging signs, including Iowa finishing the 2020 season on a six-game winning streak after starting the season 0-2. Iowa took a drastic step by reaching a separation agreement with long-time strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle barely two weeks after the first accusations were made, with many having been directed at Doyle It would be foolish and unfair to dismiss the accusations because there are just too many. The Iowa football program, and head coach Kirk Ferentz, have been under a microscope since multiple former Iowa black players accused the program of racial disparities. I bring this up now because Wednesday is the traditional signing day for college football, and because February is Black History Month. They knew that Fry had been brave enough to confront racism at a time when many college head football coaches refused to in the 1960s, and that still carried a lot of weight 30 years later, and it still does today. Many of the black players told me that Fry had convinced their parents he would be like a father figure to their sons, and would always protect and care for them, and they believed him because, well, he was Hayden Fry. I covered the Iowa football beat for seven seasons from 1992-98 with Fry as head coach, and countless black players told me that Fry’s support of civil rights and his willingness to confront racism helped convince them to sign with Iowa. It was a decision that took a tremendous amount of courage from both Fry and LeVias, and their resolve made a lasting impression. I remember asking Odems why he picked Iowa, and he mentioned how much his family respected and admired Hayden Fry, and everything he stood for as a head coach, and as a person.įry, as the head coach for Southern Methodist University, had broken the color barrier in the Southwest Conference in the mid-1960s by recruiting Jerry LeVias. Shaw would go on to become Iowa’s all-time leading rusher with 4,156 yards, while Odems was a four-year letter-winner who finished with over 900 receiving yards and five touchdowns as a Hawkeye One of the first recruiting stories I remember writing was about two high school teammates from Austin, Texas named Sedrick Shaw and Demo Odems.ĭemo was short for Demosesneeds, and needless to say, I was fascinated by his name. It was old-style recruiting coverage where a landline, word of mouth and knowing the right people were the best ways to communicate. This was before the Internet and cell phones and recruiting websites and crystal balls and 7-on-7 skill camps.
It became my beat, and I enjoyed it, the chase and getting to know the recruits and their families, and the coaches who played a role. IOWA CITY, Iowa – College football recruiting has changed in so many ways since I started covering it on a pretty regular basis for the Iowa City Press-Citizen in 1991.
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