College Football – Reflecting On The Life And Times Of Bobby Bowden

College Football

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Chris Bond @ACCMidnightink –

On January 12, 1976 one of most important events in college football history occurred and most certainly in Florida State athletics. The head coach of West Virginia football, Bobby Bowden, a native of Alabama, was hired as the next, and possibly at the time, the last football coach for Florida State football. The program had fallen on hard times since the Bill Peterson years. By the time Darrell Mudra was fired at the end of the 1975 season the team had won 4 games in the previous two seasons. It was debatable whether the program would survive if the next coach failed.

He didn’t. That’s all that needs to be said. I could talk about the 14 straight years of top 5 finishes, I could mention the 357 wins, the two national titles and the countless all Americans. He loved winning for sure, it was the business he chose. But it doesn’t begin to help one know Bobby Bowden or his way.

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Fast forward to the brisk evening of December 30, 1983. As the Sun set over Atlanta the temperature dropped to 11 degrees as Florida State, an independent at the time, defeated North Carolina in the Peach Bowl. I know how cold it was, I was there with my parents under layers of blankets. I remember two things from that night, the cold and watching Coach Bowden pace the sidelines. Bowden was unfazed by the weather and clearly the same held true in regards to the Tar Heels. At the age of ten I had a sense of what made my dad a fan of Bobby Bowden.

College Football

Faith, family, football. . Those qualities don’t begin to describe Bobby Bowden. Every player was a sacred trust to him. When they fell down, he helped them up, even when he was criticized for not showing them the door. It wasn’t his way to give up on a young man. He made promises to parents to look after them while they were under his watch in Tallahassee. I was frustrated and indeed disappointed at times when players were not thrown off the team. It seemed, from a child’s perspective, that they were just collecting free shoes. But his promises weren’t made to me or even to the University, it was to the kids. 

He never liked the title “Saint Bobby”. He appreciated the gesture but thought it was too much fodder for newspapers. His mandate to his players was to give it everything you have here and in life, don’t cheat yourself by only giving 90 percent. Look to your faith he told them, He told them I don’t care which church, synagogue or mosque you attend…just go.

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He grew up in a time when players didn’t question coaches, you just did it. Bowden never wanted to be a dictator with the title of coach. He wanted his players to find someone they could trust and be able to explain why they should run that route, call that play, or eat a good breakfast. In that sense it was the key to his longevity, it kept him relatable as generations passed through the garnet and gold locker room.

Coach Bobby Bowden

In my mother’s house is a football signed by Bowden to my late father by way of former long snapper Garrison Sanborn. Later, in my father’s illness that removed him from this world he received this as a gift from my mother. It brought out the joy of a child from my dad, like a gift he had always wanted. Coach Bowden touched many families, countless homes that he never received compensation for nor would he have ever asked. He was a man blessed with great position and great emotional generosity. That’s too rarely found in this world and will be painfully missed.

Now his family, friends and multitudes of college football fans everywhere have to live in a world without Bobby Bowden. Dadgum….

Thanks Coach, say hi to dad for me.