Two legendary football coaches with long time MSU connections were honored for their contributions to the game Thursday at the Kellogg Center.
Hayden Fry, one of college football's most prominent head coaches, and Al Fracassa, Michigan's winningest high school coach, received the 2004 Duffy Daugherty Memorial Award.
Fry, 75, coached for 37 seasons in his career: at Southern Methodist (1962-72), North Texas State (1973-78) and, most notably, at Iowa (1979-98). Fry is Iowa's winningest football coach, with 143 wins in his 20 years there.
From a personal standpoint, Fry said the award is the greatest he ever has received.
"Duffy was such a super person, and to receive an award in his name is just great," Fry said. "Never did I dream of being put in a class of all these great people, like Bo Schembechler and Bud Wilkinson."
Fracassa, 71, has coached for 47 seasons: as an assistant at Rochester High School (1958-59) and head coach at Shrine High (1960-68) and Birmingham Brother Rice High (1969-present). He holds the distinction of being Michigan's winningest high school coach, with a 332-91-7 career record.
"I just can't explain the feeling," Fracassa said. "I didn't ask anyone to come, but to have all these people that I know from Shrine and Brother Rice here is great. I'm just elated."
The banquet also recognized Daugherty's contributions to the MSU football program as head coach from 1954 to 1972. Daugherty died in 1987 at the age of 72 in Santa Barbara, Calif. The last time the award was presented was in 2000, MSU Sports Information Director John Lewandowski said.
The 15-member award committee selects the winners based on a number of criteria, from longevity to winning percentage to reputation, committee President Pat Boog said.
"Duffy Daugherty broke the color barrier for African Americans in the north; Fry did the same for the south," Boog said. "And Al sent 402 players either to college or to a bowl in his career. He's very well thought of among other coaches."
Past award recipients include such distinguished names as Michigan's Bo Schembechler, Penn State's Joe Paterno and Oklahoma's Bud Wilkinson.
At the time of his retirement in 1998, Fry ranked fourth among Division I active coaches in career wins with 232. He now holds the 10th-highest total in NCAA Division I history.
The Texas native was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003. He was dean of Big Ten coaches and was only the sixth football coach in Big Ten history to coach 20 seasons.
During his first season as Southern Methodist's head coach, Fry referred one of MSU's all-time great players, Charles "Bubba" Smith, to Daugherty. While at SMU, Fry made a historic move by recruiting receiver Jerry Levias into the segregated Southwest Conference in the late 1960s.
He also helped revive the North Texas State program in the 1970s. In the four seasons before Fry arrived, NTSU had won only seven games. After being led by Fry, that record was reversed, and his overall record was 40-23-3 in his six years there.
Fracassa, a Detroit native, was a quarterback at MSU from 1950 to 1954, first under Clarence Munn and then under Daugherty in his senior year. Fracassa was part of Munn's 1952 National Championship team and 1954 Rose Bowl Championship team.
Fracassa is more than deserving of the award, said Reg Cavender, athletics director at Brother Rice and longtime friend of Fracassa.
"This award is all about Al, and all the attention needs to be directed to him," said Cavender, who was part of the 1966 MSU football squad that tied Notre Dame in the infamous "Game of the Century."
"He builds people for life, and he's passed on many values these guys take into their daily lives and their families."
As Fracassa approaches his 48th coaching season, he said the main thing that keeps him going is the feeling he's doing something meaningful.
"It's just the love of the game," Fracassa said. "I've got young men on my teams that really inspire me, and as long as I'm healthy and I can go out there and stand up for three or four hours, I'll keep coaching."
