 Bowden in 2007 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1929-11-08)November 8, 1929 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | August 8, 2021(2021-08-08) (aged 91) Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Football | |
| 1948 | Alabama |
| 1949–1952 | Howard (AL) |
| Baseball | |
| 1952 | Howard (AL) |
| Track and field | |
| 1951 | Howard (AL) |
| Positions | Quarterback (football) Right fielder (baseball) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1953–1954 | Howard (AL) (backfield) |
| 1955–1958 | South Georgia |
| 1959–1962 | Howard (AL) |
| 1963–1965 | Florida State (WR) |
| 1966–1969 | West Virginia (OC) |
| 1970–1975 | West Virginia |
| 1976–2009 | Florida State |
| Baseball | |
| 1956–1959 | South Georgia |
| Track and field | |
| 1953–1955 | Howard (AL) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 377–129–4 (college football)[a] |
| Bowls | 21–10–1 (college)[b] |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Football 2National (1993, 1999) 12ACC (1992–2000, 2002–2003, 2005) 2 ACC Atlantic Division (2005, 2008) | |
| Awards | |
| Football Bobby Dodd COY (1980) Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award (1991) Amos Alonzo Stagg Award (2011) | |
| College Football Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 (profile) | |
Robert Cleckler Bowden (/ˈbaʊdən/; November 8, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was an Americancollege football coach. Bowden coached theFlorida State Seminoles ofFlorida State University (FSU) from 1976 to 2009 and is considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time for his accomplishments with the Seminoles.[1][2][3]
During his time at Florida State, Bowden led FSU to consensus national championships in1993 and1999, as well as twelveAtlantic Coast Conferencechampionships once FSU joined the conference in 1991. Bowden's Seminoles finished as anAP 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 the2010 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 winningestNCAA Division I college football coach of all time.[4] The coaches overtook each other throughout the 2000s, sitting just a game apart before the 2008 college football season.[5] 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 toan academic scandal. Florida State appealed the ruling,[6][7][8] but the NCAA upheld it on January 5, 2010.[9] Upon final investigation by FSU, it was determined that Bowden was to vacate 12 wins,[10] bringing his final career record to 377–129–4, second to Paterno's final tally of 409 wins.
Bowden was born inBirmingham, Alabama, the son of Bob Bowden and Sunset (née Cleckler) Bowden.[11] When he was 13 years old, Bowden was diagnosed withrheumatic 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 toWorld War II news reports on the radio, which sparked his interest in World War II, which endured for the rest of his lifetime.[11] Also around this time, he began to followcollege football; he listened toUniversity of Alabama football on Saturday mornings.[12]
Bowden was an outstanding football player atWoodlawn High School in Birmingham, and accepted a scholarship to play for theUniversity of Alabama as aquarterback.[11] He then returned to Birmingham after only one semester and eloped with his high school sweetheart, Ann Estock, on April 1, 1949.[11]
Bowden then transferred to Howard College, now known asSamford University, where he played football, baseball, ran track, and became a brother inPi 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.[11] 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.[13][14]
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 underEarl Gartman.[15] He left Howard in 1955 to become athletic director as well as head football, baseball, andbasketball coach atSouth Georgia College.[16][17] After a losing basketball season, Bowden fired himself as head coach. His baseball teams at South Georgia won three consecutive state titles.[18] Bowden then returned toHoward as head coach, where he compiled a 31–6 record between 1959 and 1962.[11] In 1962, Bowden went toFlorida State University as an assistant coach under head coachBill Peterson. Bowden left Florida State in 1965 to go toWest Virginia University (WVU) as an assistant underJim Carlen. When Carlen left following the 1969 season to become head coach atTexas Tech, Bowden replaced him. Bowden then compiled a 42–26 record at WVU before returning to FSU as head coach in 1976.[19]
During Bowden's first year as head coach at WVU, thefootball team of the state's other top-division school,Marshall University, was killed in aplane crash. He asked NCAA permission to wear Marshall jerseys and playMarshall's final game of the 1970 season againstOhio, 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 coachJack Lengyel and his assistants access to game film and playbooks to acquaint themselves with theveer offense, a variation of theoption 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 movieWe Are Marshall, and has said that he was the original candidate for the Marshall head coaching job filled by crash victimRick Tolley.[20]
Bowden made the move to become the head coach ofFlorida State in 1976, the university where, from 1962 to 1964, he had chosen to coach wide receivers because the climate was warmer inTallahassee than inMorgantown,[21] and because Tallahassee was closer toBirmingham, Alabama, where his mother and mother-in-law both lived. The team had a 4–29 record over the previous three seasons and he planned to stay only briefly before taking a better job, perhaps as head coach at Alabama.[22]
As coach, Bowden was successful very quickly at Florida State. By his second year, 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".[23] 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 theNational Football League'sAtlanta 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 thenational championship in 1993 and 1999.[22] The team was particularly dominant after joining theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 1992, winning or sharing nine consecutive conference titles from 1992 to 2000, and only losing two conference games in that stretch.[24] 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 toOklahoma in the2001 Orange Bowl. They opened the following season with anupset 41–9 loss toNorth 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.[25] 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.[26] 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 coordinatorJimbo 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.
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.[27]
One Bowden Bowl was scheduled betweenAuburn andFlorida State for 1999 whenTerry 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.[28]
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Bowden married Ann Estock, his childhood sweetheart, in 1949 and the couple raised six children and 21 grandchildren.[29] Bowden was aChristian[30] who credited his success in football to his faith.[31]
Bowden was not the only member of his family to have coached Division I-A football. His sonTommy Bowden was the head coach atClemson University. Another son,Terry Bowden, was the head coach atAuburn 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.[32]
Bowden twice endorsed and supported U.S. PresidentDonald Trump, in both the2016 and2020 presidential elections.[33]
Bowden was diagnosed withCOVID-19 in October 2020.[34][35]
The following year, on July 21, 2021, it was reported that Bowden was diagnosed with a terminal medical condition. On July 23, his son reported that the condition waspancreatic cancer.[36][37] On August 5, word began to filter from the Florida State faithful that Bowden was not doing well and his family was being told to gather. Bobby Bowden died on the morning of August 8, 2021.[38]
He lay in honor in the rotunda of the Florida Capitol Building on August 13. He then lay repose at the Moore Athletic Center outside ofDoak Campbell Stadium later that day. A memorial service was held for Bowden in the Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee on August 14. Bowden then lay in repose in the Reid Chapel atSamford University on August 15, prior to burial inTrussville, Alabama.[39] on August 16.
Bowden was awarded theBobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award for 1980.[40] He received theWalter Camp Coach of the Year Award for 1991.[41] In 1992 Bowden received theUnited States Sports Academy's Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a coach.[42]
In 2004, the playing surface atDoak Campbell Stadium was named Bobby Bowden Field in Bowden's honor. The stadium's capacity more than doubled through four expansions under his watch, reflecting the Seminoles' rise.
On March 21, 2010, the Over the Mountain Touchdown Club of Birmingham, Alabama presented the first annualBobby Bowden National Collegiate Coach of the Year Award, named in honor of Bowden and the contributions that he made during his career. The award recognizes a coach each year with unmatched success on and off of the field in the same attributes that Bowden showed throughout his career: perseverance, attitude, integrity, and determination. University of Alabama head coachNick Saban was the first recipient of the award, and it was presented by Bowden himself. The award is presented each year after national signing day and before the commencement of Spring practice.[43]
In 2003, theFellowship of Christian Athletes presented the first of what is now a yearly award in Bowden's name.[11] The award was initiated by former Bowden assistant coachVince Gibson and former Bowden player Vernon Brinson. It honors one college football player for his achievements on the field, in the classroom and in the community. In 2013, the Seminole Tribe of Florida became the official sponsor of the award. The Seminole Tribe of Florida Bobby Bowden Student-Athlete of the Year Award is presented each year prior to the College Football Playoff (CFP) national title.[44]
In 2011, in recognition of his philanthropic efforts with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bowden received the Children's Champion Award for Leadership Development from the charitable organizationChildren's Hunger Fund.[45]
In his 44 seasons as a college football head coach, Bowden had 40 winning seasons (including 33 consecutive at Florida State), and 36 Division I-A winning seasons.[46] From 1987 through 2000, Bowden coached Florida State to 14 straight seasons with 10 or more victories, and his team had a final ranking in the top five of the major polls.[47]
^ The 1983 season includes a forfeit win vs. Tulane.
‡ For the 2006 and 2007 seasons 12 wins, including 6 conference wins, were vacated for use of ineligible players. 5 wins from 2006 (including 2 conference wins) and 7 wins from 2007 (including 4 conference wins) were ultimately vacated by the NCAA.
Assistant coaches under Bobby Bowden who became NCAA head coaches:
Bobby Bowden has co-authored several books, including:
Books about Bobby Bowden's early coaching years:
Books about Bobby Bowden's entire career:
Books that feature contributions from Bobby Bowden:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
...{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
