Bobby Bowden
Robert Cleckler Bowden was an American college football coach. Bowden coached the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University from 1976 to 2009 and is considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time for his accomplishments with the team.
During his time at Florida State, Bowden led FSU to consensus national championships in 1993 and 1999, as well as twelve Atlantic Coast Conference championships once FSU joined the conference in 1991. Bowden's Seminoles finished as an AP top-5 team for 14 consecutive seasons, setting a record which doubled the closest program. However, the program weakened during the mid-2000s, and after a difficult 2009 season Bowden was forced to retire just weeks after his 80th birthday. He made his final coaching appearance in the 2010 Gator Bowl game on January 1, 2010, with a 33–21 victory over his former program, West Virginia.
Bowden spent the last part of his career in a race with his close friend, Joe Paterno, to become the winningest NCAA Division I college football coach of all time. The coaches overtook each other throughout the 2000s, sitting just a game apart before the 2008 college football season. However, on March 6, 2009, an NCAA ruling required Florida State to "vacate wins for any games in which an ineligible player participated", threatening to remove as many as fourteen of Bowden's wins from the 2006 and 2007 seasons in relation to an academic scandal. Florida State appealed the ruling, but the NCAA upheld it on January 5, 2010. Upon final investigation by FSU, it was determined that Bowden was to vacate 12 wins, bringing his final career record to 377–129–4, second to Paterno's final tally of 409 wins.
Early life and education
Bowden was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Bob Bowden and Sunset Bowden. When he was 13 years old, Bowden was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, which led to a six-month hospital stay. After his discharge, Bowden was confined to his bed at home for just over a year. While ill, Bowden passed the time by listening to World War II news reports on the radio, which sparked his interest in World War II, which endured for the rest of his lifetime. Also around this time, he began to follow college football; he listened to University of Alabama football on Saturday mornings.Bowden was an outstanding football player at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, and accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Alabama as a quarterback. He then returned to Birmingham after only one semester and eloped with his high school sweetheart, Ann Estock, on April 1, 1949.
Bowden then transferred to Howard College, now known as Samford University, where he played football, baseball, ran track, and became a brother in Pi Kappa Alpha. In his junior year, he was elected president of Pi Kappa Alpha. In his senior year, he was re-elected as Pi Kappa Alpha president and became captain of the Samford football team, where he garnered "Little All-America" honors as quarterback. The Howard College faculty nominated him for Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges in recognition of his academic and athletic leadership. Bowden graduated from Howard in 1953.
Early coaching career
Bowden graduated from Howard in 1953, and began his coaching career at his alma mater, that fall as an assistant football coach in charge of the backfield under Earl Gartman. He left Howard in 1955 to become athletic director as well as head football, baseball, and basketball coach at South Georgia College. After a losing basketball season, Bowden fired himself as head coach. His baseball teams at South Georgia won three consecutive state titles. 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. 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 killed in a plane crash. He 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 filled by crash victim Rick Tolley.
Florida State
Bowden returned to Florida State in 1976, hired as head coach in January; fourteen years earlier in 1962, he had chosen to coach the FSU wide receivers because the climate was warmer in Tallahassee than in Morgantown, and because Tallahassee was closer to Birmingham, Alabama, where his mother and mother-in-law both lived. The Seminoles had a dismal record over the previous three seasons and he planned to stay only briefly before taking a better job, perhaps at Alabama. Bowden's initial four-year contract at FSU in 1976 paid $37,500 annually, a minor increase of $2,500 over his 1975 salary at West Virginia, which only granted one-year contracts at the time.Bowden was successful very quickly at Florida State. After his second year in 1977, Bowden faced rumors he would leave for another job; the team went 9–2, compared to the four wins total in the three seasons before Bowden. He said he would be content to finish his career at Florida State, however, and reportedly told another athletic-department employee he would "never coach anywhere north of Tallahassee". During 34 years as head coach he had only one losing season–his first, in 1976–and declined head coaching job offers from Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons. From 1987 to 2000, the Seminoles finished every season with at least 10 wins and in the top 5 of the Associated Press College Football Poll, and won the national championship in 1993 and 1999. The team was particularly dominant after joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992, winning or sharing nine consecutive conference titles from 1992 to 2000, and only losing two conference games in that stretch. They were ranked in the AP Poll for all but three weeks from 1987 to 2005. This included 211 consecutive weeks from 1989 to 2001, the second-longest streak in college football history at the time.
Bowden's tenure crested with a third consecutive appearance in the national championship game after the 2000 season, a loss to Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl. They opened the following season with an upset 41–9 loss to North Carolina, only the third loss they had ever suffered in ACC play. They finished 8–4, the first time they had lost that many games in 15 years. It also marked the first time since joining the ACC where they did not win at least a share of the ACC title; indeed, their two losses in ACC play were as many as they had suffered in their first nine years in the league. From then on, Bowden notched one more appearance in the top 10 of a final media poll, in 2003–which was also the last time he won 10 games in a season.
In 2006, Florida State finished 7-6, its worst record since Bowden's first season. The Seminoles also suffered their first losing record in ACC play since joining the league. Following that season, LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher was hired to take the same post in Tallahassee. Following another 7-6 season in 2007, Fisher was designated as Bowden's successor, and was slated to take over the program no later than 2011. The Seminoles rebounded to 9-4 in 2008, but after barely qualifying for a bowl in 2009, Bowden was forced to announce his retirement effective at the end of the season.
The Bowden Bowl
Since both Florida State and Clemson are in the same division of the ACC 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.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.
File:FSU head football coach Bobby Bowden and sons- Tallahassee, Florida.jpg|thumb|Bowden with sons Tommy, Jeff, and Terry
Personal life
Bowden married Ann Estock, his childhood sweetheart, in 1949 and the couple raised six children and 21 grandchildren. Bowden was a Christian who credited his success in football to his faith.Bowden was 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. 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.
Bowden twice endorsed and supported U.S. President Donald Trump, in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Bowden's first cousin once removed is journalist and author Mark Bowden.