no mention of his military service during World War II and made no attempt to explain the four-year gap between his sophomore and junior seasons as a Wisconsin player. He never brought it up and most of his players were astounded to hear about it later—much later. Frei was on the staff at Oregon for 17 seasons, twelve as an assistant and five as head coach. Resignation Frei resigned as head coach on January 19, 1972. That was two months after the end of the 1971 season, which included road losses to national champion Nebraska and national power Texas in "paycheck" games deemed necessary for the then-strapped Oregon athletic department. The final game was a 30–29 home loss to Oregon State in the Civil War, with halfback Ahmad Rashad (then known as Bobby Moore) unable to play because a bruised thigh. It was Oregon State's eighth consecutive win in the series. Popular in Eugene after seventeen years on staff, Frei had seemed destined to remain as head coach, but his resignation followed a dispute with second-year athletic director Norv Ritchey, who recommended that Frei fire assistant coaches to deflect criticism and mollify some disgruntled boosters, primarily in Portland. The ridiculousness of that request became clear later; 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, a future head coach at Utah State, California, and Arizona State. Radical student body president Iain Moore issued a statement to the Oregon media, declaring: "In an un-ideal situation, Jerry Frei ran as ideal a program as possible with the broad interests of the participants pre-eminent in his mind and actions. The Oregon program will be all the poorer for his departure and his reputation has been besmirched in the process." National Football League Frei was an assistant coach with the Broncos (1972–1975), expansion 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 at age 76 in 2001. Family Frei's widow, Marian, died at age 87, in Lakewood, Colorado, in March 2011. They are buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery