Bobby Bowden: Life and Legacy
Bobby Bowden was “one of a kind” in every sense of those words. A devoted father, a winning coach, and a man focused on everyone but himself, Bobby left an impact on every community he joined. When Coach Bowden took charge of the 1976 Florida State football team, he arrived to a team with a cumulative record of four wins and twenty-nine losses over the past three seasons, which he had to repair. In the first year, the Seminoles had a five-win and six-loss record. That was Coach Bowden’s only losing season.
Beginning in 1987, Coach Bowden had fourteen straight seasons of double-digit wins and finished in the top five every year in the AP polls. Bowden later led the guys to two national championships in 1993 and 1999. He is the only coach to lead a team to fifteen consecutive New Year’s Day bowl games, and he is the second winningest coach in major college football history with three hundred eighty-nine wins. Rightfully, he was named the National Coach of the Year six times. However, if you were to ask Bobby what was most important to him, “winning” would be far from his answer. Bobby reportedly had these words of advice for users in a Reddit comment section: “Make God number one, family number two, other people your third priority…which is hard to do. Put people before yourself.”
Countless reporters have said that Bobby Bowden always made them feel welcome. He was the type of person to make someone feel that his only priority was sitting and talking to whoever was in front of him. He truly cared about his players and was most concerned with making them better men. Bobby was also a devout family man, and all three of his sons followed in his footsteps. They each became coaches and all recorded undefeated seasons in 1994. Countless other coaches have told stories about their interactions with Bobby Bowden, too. One that sticks out in particular is current Alabama Coach Nick Saban's personal account. Saban, a West Virginia native, was devastated after the loss of his father. He recalls Coach Bowden, at the time coaching for West Virginia University, calling him up and offering to make room on his staff for a position for him. Bowden explained by saying he understood that Saban probably wanted to be closer to his mother.
This was the kind of man Bobby Bowden was. He set the precedent that opposing teams did not need to treat each other poorly. A lot of these qualities can be attributed to the fact that he was a man of very strong faith. He used his coaching platform as a means to share his faith and often received calls from players well after their time at Florida State who wanted to ask Coach Bowden what it was all about. He fostered a culture of passion, purpose, and perseverance.
Before Coach passed, he told sources he was at peace with the thought of dying. One can be certain that he is a guardian angel for so many and watches Doak Campbell Stadium from Heaven.
In coordination with the FSU Foundation, Seminole Boosters, and FSU Alumni Association, the SLC will be playing the documentary, The Bowden Dynasty, on 11/10 at 7 PM.
Editor’s Note: For more from Kyeli and the other sports anchors at V89, tune into 89.7FM on Mondays at 7 PM for their flagship talk show, Tomahawk Talk. Or, check out their podcast, Tomahawk Talk: Graveyard Shift, including their recent episode on sports movies, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Written by: Kyeli Brennan | Instagram
Art by: Cassidy Elibol
