Jerry Frei Gerald L . " Jerry " Frei ( June 3 , 1924 – February 16 , 2001 ) was an American football player and coach . He served as the head football coach at the University of Oregon from 1967 to 1971 , compiling a record of 22 – 29 – 2 . At Oregon , Frei coached Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad . He later worked in the NFL as a coach and scout , mostly with the Denver Broncos . Early life , playing career , and military service . Fittingly , Frei was born in the small Wisconsin town of Oregon . He spent his early years in Brooklyn , Wisconsin , then moved with his family to Stoughton , near Madison . He 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 . Frei was inducted into the Stoughton Hall of Fame after his death . Frei attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison . As an 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 AP Poll , and was named the national championship by the Helms Athletic Foundation . The Badgers beat the AP national champion , Ohio State , but lost to unheralded Iowa and tied Notre Dame . Frei served as a pilot in the United States 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 made solo flights over Japanese targets to take photographs in advance of bombing missions . Following World War II , he returned to Wisconsin , where he played football for the Badgers in 1946 and 1947 . He graduated in 1948 . Coaching career . Early coaching positions . 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 . He became head coach at Lincoln High School in 1950 , then line coach at Willamette University in 1952 . 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 - 8 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 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 . " Frei resigned as head coach on January 19 , 1972 , two months after the 1971 had season ended following a dispute with the athletic director , who recommended that Frei fire assistant coaches . 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 later the head coach at the University of California , Berkeley and Arizona State University . National Football League . Frei was an assistant coach with the Broncos ( 1972 – 1975 ) , Tampa Bay Buccaneers ( 1976 – 1977 ) and Chicago Bears ( 1978 – 1980 ) , 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 . Family . Frei ' s eldest son , David , 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 dog s , serving in organizations and writing books on the subject . His second son , Terry , is a sports writer for " The Denver Post " and his books include : 1 , " Olympic Affair : A Novel of Hitler ' s Siren and America ' s Hero " ; 2 , " Playing Piano in a Brothel " ; 3 , " Horns , Hogs , and Nixon Coming " ; 4 , " Third Down and a War to Go : The All - American 1942 Wisconsin Badgers " ; 5 , " ' 77 : Denver , the Broncos and a Coming of Age " , and 6 , " The Witch ' s Season " , a novel clearly based on Frei ' s Oregon teams and the men and women on the campus in those times . Frei ' s daughter , Judy Kaplan , is a former schoolteacher who now is a community volunteer in the Denver area . Another 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 . A third daughter , Nancy McCormick , is a senior legal assistant with the Chicago law firm of Barlit , Beck , Herman , Palenchar and Scott . Frei ' s widow , Marian , died in Lakewood , Colorado , in March 2011 . External links .