This is the first article of two part series that explores a unique 12-year contract that was given to ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly.

Lows are what bring about highs.

Never has that held more true than in the volatile, roller-coaster lifestyle of a college coach. Bill Fennelly has been riding that roller-coaster for 19 years, 12 of those as head coach of the ISU women’s basketball team. Right now he’s rising high – $10.6 million high.

Fresh off a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and an appearance in the Big 12 championship, Fennelly was rewarded with a 12-year contract extension that won’t expire until he is 62.

Fennelly is a Cyclone for life.

But his stratospheric rise came only from his ability to rebound from a near-catastrophic low. Just two months prior to his extension, Fennelly’s program was hurtling in the wrong direction, leaving him to question his future as a Cyclone.

Fennelly had just witnessed his team surrender a late lead at home to a weak Oklahoma State team for the Cyclones’ third straight conference loss on Jan. 13. No. 22 Texas loomed, frustration mounted, and a doubt-ridden Fennelly summed it all up following the game in one statement: “Without a question, this is the lowest point of my career at Iowa State.”

“I said after the game that it may be time for a change. I said that publicly, and it wasn’t in the heat of the moment. That’s not my personality; I say what I think,” Fennelly said. “It was really the lowest point, not because we lost the game, but because I didn’t see in our team what Iowa State teams are supposed to be about.”

Sleep didn’t come easy for Fennelly, but questions did. What if his message to the team was getting old? Was it really time to leave his life of 12 years? At 1-3 in Big 12 play, there was plenty of time for a turnaround.

But, for Fennelly, it wasn’t about the losses. It was his team’s inability to comprehend the message, the mindset and the culture of ISU basketball.

“The one thing about Bill is he is a perfectionist, he expects to succeed, he works hard to succeed,” said assistant coach Jodi Steyer, who has been an assistant with Fennelly for 11 seasons. “He is never one of those that is going to be comfortable and think he is set. I think he puts higher expectations on himself than anyone can imagine.”

With pressures mounting, the nature of the coaching world just added to the stress in his life. The profession has never been synonymous with job security, but for years, he didn’t seriously need to worry about his job. After all, to Cyclone fans he was Bill Fennelly- the man who saved ISU women’s basketball.

But one look at the changing, unforgiving and unstable landscape of college coaching, and a glance at the suddenly hazardous environment of a traditionally safe Iowa State, was enough to tingle his job security nerves.

“Did [getting fired] creep into your mind? Sure it does,” Fennelly said. “It would be hard not to when you look around and see what is going on, not just at Iowa State but across the country.”

Fennelly had a new boss – ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard – who wasn’t content with mediocrity and wasn’t afraid to make a coaching change.

In Pollard’s first year at Iowa State, there were four coaching changes. Men’s basketball coach Wayne Morgan, wrestling coach Bobby Douglas and gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler were the first to leave.

The fourth change, however, involved one of Fennelly’s closest friends – and struck the deepest. For 12 seasons ISU football coach Dan McCarney had been a fixture at Iowa State, but that ended in early November when McCarney resigned following the team’s disappointing 4-8 season. As Fennelly got ready to embark on his 12th season, suddenly the man who began his ISU career at the same time as Fennelly in 1995 had lost his job.

When Fennelly saw his season heading in the wrong direction, it was enough for him to draw parallels to his friend. After all, to Cyclone fans, he was once Dan McCarney – the man who saved ISU football.

“He mentioned it at home quite a bit. He lost one of his best friends in McCarney,” said Deb Fennelly, Bill’s wife. “We have seen some of the changes since then, and you do, you feel like it could be me next.”

It wasn’t Bill next. In fact, he never would have let it get to where he was next.

“If things hadn’t changed in my mind, Jamie wouldn’t have had to fire me, I would have quit,” Bill said. “My number one thing always is I am going to do whatever is best for Iowa State. And if it would have gotten to a point where a different coach would have done something better or different, then that’s what we would have done.”

Bill was at a crucial point in his career, a crossroads of sorts.

He had to turn the program around or face the prospect of doing what was best for Iowa State – walking away from his home for the past 12 years. But what would get Fennelly through was knowing it wasn’t how low he was, but who was with him at that low to help bring him to his high.