my friend has a garden  full of fig bushes. Six or eight finger thick stock come up from the same root. they get 4-5 ft tall. Each year they they die and do not produce fruit. If they were potted, and protected in the winter, would they produce figs ?

I do not know but I had neighbors who  had figs like that while they were bushier than mine, mine had figs and hers did not. I think they are the other type of figs that need to be pollinated by wasp--most probable.

Welcome Sparky,it could be a number of things.If you see them start fruit and abort (drop) then it could be a pollination issue,if it is not that and the Figs grow but then die back with the rest of that plant above ground in winter it could be that it requires a longer season than it has outside to ripen in your location,another possibility is that if you don't see it start figs at all it is just putting all its energy into growing back and not into fruiting.You could try cuttings or rooted sucker,pot it up,fertilise it and pinch it to encourage it to put energy into fruiting rather than growing ,give it a bit of protection to over winter it and see what happens,you never know,it could be a good fig,at least you know it will die back in winter and come back rather than just die completely in your area so the tree has its plus points to start with

My guess would be its the cold killing it back but coming back from the roots each year.