Jerry Frei
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Gerald L. Frei (born June 3, 1924 in Wisconsin, died February 16, 2001 in Denver, Colorado) was a long-time college and National Football League (NFL) coach and administrator, most notably serving five years as the head coach at the University of Oregon -- when the Ducks had, among others, Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad -- and spending most of his time in professional football with the Denver Broncos.
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[edit] Early years
Ironically, Frei was born in the small Wisconsin town of Oregon. He spent his early years in Brookyn, Wisconsin, then moved with his family to Stoughton, Wisconsin, near Madison. He was graduated from Stoughton High School in 1941, shortly before his 17th birthday. He was a classmate there of Marian Benson, whom he later married in 1945. (He was inducted into the Stoughton Hall of Fame after his death.)
[edit] Education
Frei attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a 18-year-old sophomore in 1942, he was a guard for the Wisconsin Badgers. The team, which starred two-time All American end Dave Schreiner and halfback Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, finished with an 8-1-1 record, ranked third in the final Associated Press poll, and won the Helms Foundation version of the national championship. The Badgers beat the AP national champion, Ohio State, but lost to unheralded Iowa and tied Notre Dame. Following World War II, he returned to UW Madison, where he played football for the Badgers in 1946 and 1947. He graduated in 1948.
[edit] Military service
Frei served as a pilot in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, flying 67 reconnaissance missions in the Pacific theater for the 26th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (26th PRS) of the Fifth Air Force's 6th Photographic Group. In the unarmed version of the P-38, he would make solo flights over Japanese targets to take photographs in advance of bombing missions. [1]
[edit] Career
[edit] Early coaching jobs
Journeying to Oregon at the recommendation of a fellow pilot, Don Garbarino, Frei quickly became a popular high school football coach at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. [2] He became head coach at Lincoln High School in 1950, then line coach at Willamette University in 1952.
[edit] University of Oregon
Frei joined Len Casanova's football staff at the University of Oregon as freshman coach in 1955. He replaced Casanova as the Duck's 25th head coach in 1967. He had a 22-29-4 record for his five seasons as head coach. His 1970 team finished second in the Pacific Eight Conference and he twice was United Press International's national Coach of the Week that season. His son, Terry Frei, suggests in his book that Frei was criticized for not maintaining "discipline" on the team when some of his players protested the Vietnam war and/or wore their hair long on what was then a turbulent campus. Frei himself was known to be conservative, but his philosophy was that especially because he had flown in combat at age 20 and had been forced to grow up fast, he wasn't going to try to control his young players' lives, dictate their hairstyles, or attempt to censor their political views away from the field. He steadfastly refused to call his players "kids," and some made fun of or never understood his unvarying references to them as "young men." [3] He resigned 19 January 1972, two months after the season ended, following a dispute with the athletic director, who recommended that Frei fire assistant coaches. [4] His final Oregon staff included future NFL head coaches John Robinson, George Seifert and Gunther Cunningham, future NFL defensive coordinator John Marshall, and Bruce Snyder, the future head coach at California and Arizona State.
[edit] National Football League
Frei was an assistant coach with the Broncos (1972-75), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1976-77) and Chicago Bears (1978-80), returning to the Broncos in 1981. He was a Broncos offensive line coach under John Ralston and Dan Reeves before going into scouting and administration, and he wound down his full-time career as the team's director of college scouting. After his retirement, Frei served as a consultant until his death in 2001.
[edit] Family members
Frei's eldest son, David Frei, has hosted the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show since 1990. He once served as the public relations director for ABC Sports, the Denver Broncos, and the San Francisco 49ers. He has been the WKC's director of communications since 2003. He is an advocate of service dogs, serving in organizations and writing books on the subject. [5] [6]
His daughter, Judy Kaplan, is a former schoolteacher who now is a community volunteer in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
His son Terry[7] is a sports writer for the Denver Post and ESPN.com, and has authored three books -- a) Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming; b) Third Down and a War to Go: The All-American 1942 Wisconsin Badgers; and, c) '77: Denver, the Broncos and a Coming of Age.
His daughter, Susan Frei Earley, is a former principal with the Colorado Ballet who also danced with the Tampa Ballet and Tennessee Dance Theatre. She is the ballet mistress with the Tulsa Ballet. [8]
His daughter, Nancy McCormick, is a senior legal assistant with the Chicago law firm of Barlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar and Scott.
His widow, Marian Frei, lives in the Denver area.
[edit] References
- ^ Frei, Terry. "Grateful For the Guard," Denver Post, 13 Novemeber 2000
- ^ Bellamy, Ron. "This Picture's Worth Goes Beyond Words", Register-Guard, 22 October 2004
- ^ Frei, Terry. Third Down and a War to Go, 2004
- ^ George Seifert article
- ^ Malone, Michael. Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Host David Frei on Ruff Crowd: TV Has Gone to the Dogs With Westminster on USA, CNBC, National Dog Show on NBC, Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, Broadcasting and Cable, 8 February 2008
- ^ USA Network Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
- ^ Terry Frei website
- ^ List of faculty at the Tulsa Ballet's Center for Dance Education
[edit] External links
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