Bobby Bowden

Bobby Bowden

Robert Cleckler Bowden (born November 8, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama) is a recently retired college football coach. He coached the Florida State Seminoles football team from the 1976 to 2009 seasons. During his time at Florida State, Bowden led FSU to an Associated Press and Coaches Poll National Title in 1993 and a BCS National Championship National Title in 1999, as well as twelve Atlantic Coast Conference championships since FSU joined the conference in 1991. After a difficult 2009 season and amid questioning fans, Bowden announced his retirement from FSU on December 1st, just weeks after his 80th birthday. His final coaching appearance was the 2010 Gator Bowl game on January 1st with a 33-21 victory over his former program, West Virginia.

Bowden finished his career second in all-time wins by a Division I-FBS coach with 375 wins. Joe Paterno is the all-time winningest coach. Bowden is tied with Paterno and Paul 'Bear' Bryant for most Division 1A winning seasons at 37. A March 6, 2009 NCAA ruling requiring Florida State to "vacate any games in which an ineligible player participated" threatens to remove 14 of Bowden's wins from the 2006 and 2007 seasons in relation to an academic scandal. As of July 2009, Florida State is appealing the ruling.. This ruling was upheld on January 5, 2010 . As of the 2009 season, Bowden was one of four active coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches (along with Chris Ault, Joe Paterno, and John Gagliardi).

Youth and family life

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Bowden spent a portion of his childhood in bed, sick. When he was 13 years old, Bowden was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. After a six month hospital stay, Bowden was confined to his bed at home for just over a year with nothing more than his imagination to pass the time. It was listening to World War II reports on the radio that began Bowden's interest in the war, an interest he still has to this day. It was also around this time that his love for football increased, as he would listen to University of Alabama football on Saturday mornings.

Bowden was an outstanding football player at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, and went on to the University of Alabama as a quarterback, fulfilling a lifelong dream to play for the Crimson Tide before returning to Birmingham and marrying his high school sweetheart Ann Estock on April 1, 1949 (today, the couple have six children and 21 grandchildren). Bobby transferred to Howard College (now Samford University), where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Bowden graduated from Howard in 1953.

Early coaching career

Bowden served as an assistant football coach and head track and field coach at Howard College (now known as Samford University, currently in the FCS football division) in Birmingham, Alabama from 1954–1955. He left his alma mater to become Athletic Director as well as head football, baseball, and basketball coach at South Georgia College from 1956 to 1958. Bowden then returned to Howard as head coach, where he compiled a 31–6 record between 1959 and 1962. In 1962, Bowden went to Florida State University as an assistant coach under Head Coach Bill Peterson. Two other coaching legends who worked under Coach Peterson during this time were Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs. Bowden left Florida State in 1965 to go to West Virginia University as an assistant under Jim Carlen. When Carlen left following the 1969 season to become head coach at Texas Tech, Bowden replaced him. Bowden then compiled a 42–26 record at WVU before returning to FSU as head coach in 1976.

During Bowden's first year as head coach at WVU, the football team of the state's other top-division school, Marshall University, was wiped out in a tragic plane crash. Bowden asked NCAA permission to wear Marshall jerseys and play Marshall's final game of the 1970 season against Ohio, but was denied. In memory of the victims of the crash, Mountaineers players put green crosses and the initials "MU" on their helmets. Bowden allowed Marshall's new head coach Jack Lengyel and his assistants access to game film and playbooks to acquaint themselves with the veer offense, a variation of the option offense which aids teams with weak offensive lines. Lengyel credits Bowden with helping the Young Thundering Herd recover. Bowden reportedly became emotional while viewing the movie We Are Marshall, and has said that he was the original candidate for the Marshall head coaching job ultimately filled by crash victim Rick Tolley.

Florida State

Bobby Bowden on the sidelines of the November 4, 2006 game

At Florida State, Bowden inherited a team that had won just four games over the previous three seasons. In his 34 years as the head coach at Florida State, he has had only one losing season, his first in 1976. He is the only coach in Division I-A football history to have enjoyed 14 straight seasons of 10 or more wins. His Florida State Seminoles finished an unprecedented 14 straight seasons in the top 5 of the Associated Press College Football Poll, and won the College Football National Championship in 1993 and 1999.

The National Bobby Bowden Award

In 2004, The Fellowship of Christian Athletes presented the first of what is now a yearly award in Bowden's name, The National Bobby Bowden Award, honoring one college football player for his achievements on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The award is presented each year prior to the Bowl Championship Series' national title

Family of coaches

Bobby is not the only member of his family to have coached Division I-A football. His son Tommy Bowden was the head coach at Clemson University. Tommy was fired in 2008. Another son, Terry Bowden, was the head coach at Auburn University, where he was the 1993 Coach of the Year. A third son, Jeff Bowden, was the offensive coordinator at Florida State. All three Bowden men who were head coaches have achieved an undefeated season: Terry in 1993 at Auburn; Tommy in 1998 at Tulane; and Bobby in 1999 at Florida State. Bobby's 1993 and 1999 Florida State teams were the only ones to win a National Championship, however.

The Bowden Bowl

As both Florida State and Clemson are in the same division of the Atlantic Coast Conference for football, the two teams played each other every year from 1999 through 2007 in a game that became known as "The Bowden Bowl". Their 1999 meeting was the first time in Division I-A history that a father and a son met as opposing head coaches in a football game. Bobby held the edge in the series 5–4, with all four losses within the last five games. Tommy Bowden's four wins in the series remain the only times a son has ever beaten his father when facing off as head coach in any of America's four major sports.

One Bowden Bowl was scheduled between Auburn and Florida State for 1999 when Terry Bowden was the coach at Auburn. However, Terry's midseason resignation in 1998 ended the possibility of a Bowden Bowl. Another Bowden Bowl was scheduled between Clemson and Florida State in 2008, but Tommy Bowden's resignation halfway through the year ended the Bowden Bowls. Florida State beat Clemson in what would have been the 2008 Bowden Bowl on Bobby Bowden's 79th birthday, earning him his 380th career win.

Head coaching record

In his 43 seasons as a head coach, Bowden has had 38 winning seasons, and 36 Division 1-A winning seasons. During the period 1987 – 2000, Bowden coached Florida State to 14 straight seasons with 10 or more victories, and his team had a final ranking of fifth or higher in both of the major polls.

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Howard Bulldogs (Independent) (1959–1962)
1959	Howard	9–1
1960	Howard	8–1
1961	Howard	7–2
1962	Howard	7–2
Howard:		31–6
West Virginia Mountaineers (Independent) (1970–1975)
1970	West Virginia	8–3
1971	West Virginia	7–4
1972	West Virginia	8–4			L Peach
1973	West Virginia	6–5
1974	West Virginia	4–7
1975	West Virginia	9–3			W Peach	17	20
West Virginia:		42–26
Florida State Seminoles (Independent) (1976–1991)
1976	Florida State	5–6
1977	Florida State	10–2			W Tangerine	11	14
1978	Florida State	8–3
1979	Florida State	11–1			L Orange	8	6
1980	Florida State	10–2			L Orange	5	5
1981	Florida State	6–5
1982	Florida State	9–3			W Gator	10	13
1983	Florida State	8–4			W Peach
1984	Florida State	7–3–2			Tie Citrus	19	17
1985	Florida State	9–3			W Gator	13	15
1986	Florida State	7–4–1			W All-American	20
1987	Florida State	11–1			W Fiesta	2	2
1988	Florida State	11–1			W Sugar	3	3
1989	Florida State	10–2			W Fiesta	2	3
1990	Florida State	10–2			W Blockbuster	4	4
1991	Florida State	11–2			W Cotton	4	4
Florida State Seminoles (ACC) (1992–present)
1992	Florida State	11–1	8–0	1st	W Orange	2	2
1993	Florida State	12–1	8–0	1st	W Orange	1	1
1994	Florida State	10–1–1	8–0	1st	W Sugar	5	4
1995	Florida State	10–2	7–1	T-1st	W Orange	5	4
1996	Florida State	11–1	8–0	1st	L Sugar	3	3
1997	Florida State	11–1	8–0	1st	W Sugar	3	3
1998	Florida State	11–2	7–1	T-1st	L Fiesta†	3	3
1999	Florida State	12–0	8–0	1st	W Sugar†	1	1
2000	Florida State	11–2	8–0	1st	L Orange†	4	5
2001	Florida State	8–4	6–2	2nd	W Gator	15	15
2002	Florida State	9–5	7–1	1st	L Sugar†	23	21
2003	Florida State	10–3	7–1	1st	L Orange†	10	11
2004	Florida State	9–3	6–2	2nd	W Gator	14	15
2005	Florida State	8–5	5–3	1st (Atlantic)	L Orange†	23	22
2006	Florida State	7‡–6	3–5	6th (Atlantic)	Win Discounted Emerald
2007	Florida State	7‡–6	4–4	6th (Atlantic)	L Music City
2008	Florida State	9–4	5–3	T-1st (Atlantic)	W Champs Sports	23	21
2009	Florida State	7–6	4–4	3rd (Atlantic)	W Gator
Florida State:		302–85–4	110–18
Total:		375–129–4
National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth
†Indicates Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, BCS, or CFP / New Years' Six bowl. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

Author

Bobby Bowden has co-authored several books, including:

• Winning's Only Part of the Game : Lessons of Life and Football (1996) (ISBN 0-446-52050-0)
• The Bowden Way : 50 Years of Leadership Wisdom (2001) (ISBN 1-56352-684-0)
• Bobby Bowden's Tales from the Seminole Sideline (2004) (ISBN 1-58261-406-7)

Books about Bobby Bowden's early coaching years:

• Bobby Bowden: Memories of A Legend and his Boys from South Georgia College (2008) (ISBN 978-1-58385-282-8)

Books about Bobby Bowden's entire career:

• Bobby Bowden: Win by Win (2003) (ISBN 0-7385-1544-2)
• Bowden: How Bobby Bowden Forged a Football Dynasty (2003) (ISBN 0-0614-7419-3)
• Pure Gold: Bobby Bowden An Inside Look (2004) (ISBN 1-5967-0120-X)

See also

• List of Florida State University head football coaches
• List of College Football Hall of Fame inductees (coaches)

References

• "ACC Standings" (PDF). 2006 ACC Football Media Guide. Atlantic Coast Conference. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
• "Florida State University Coaching Staff" (PDF). 2006 Florida State Football Media Guide. Florida State University Athletics. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
• "Florida State University Year-By-Year Record" (PDF). 2006 Florida State Football Media Guide. Florida State University Athletics. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
• "West Virginia University Coaching History" (PDF). 2006 West Virginia Football Media Guide. West Virginia University Athletics. Retrieved 2007-01-10.

External links

• Bowden's bio from the official Florida State athletic's website
• Video clip from 1977 Bobby Bowden comments on his first season as head coach of Florida State University's football program.

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