Bobby Bowden - # 269

Legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden dies at 91

 

He was number 269 on the list.

Bobby Bowden, who won more than 400 games as a college football head coach, has died. He was 91.

Bobby’s son, Terry, confirmed to The Associated Press that his father died at home in Tallahassee, Fla., surrounded by family early Sunday morning.

“It was truly peaceful,” Terry Bowden said in a text message to AP.

Bowden’s official victory total of 377 puts him second all-time, behind Joe Paterno’s 409 career wins. (The NCAA doesn’t count 22 wins at South Georgia State College and 12 wins at Florida State were vacated due to the use of an ineligible player.)

Bowden first became a college head coach in 1956, spending three seasons at South Georgia State. He coached Samford for four years. After three years at Florida State as receivers coach and four at West Virginia as offensive coordinator, Bowden became the coach at WVU in 1970. He’d remain there through the 1975 season before returning to Tallahassee, where he led the program from 1976 through 2009.

In the final game of his career, Bowden lead Florida State to a win over West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

“Today, we lost a legend,” Jaguars coach Urban Meyer said on Twitter. “Bobby was a great friend and mentor to me, and his impact transcended the coaching profession in so many ways.”

Via ESPN.com, Bowden announced in July that he has a terminal illness. His son, Terry, later told reporters that his father was suffering from pancreatic cancer. 

owden was replaced in 2010 by his offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, who had been Bowden’s replacement-in-waiting.

“He’s one of the great human beings that’s ever coached and one of the great coaches that’s ever coached,” Fisher said.

Bowden won the national championship in 1993 with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward and again in 1999 with his second Heisman winner, quarterback Chris Weinke, and All-American receiver Peter Warrick.

The Seminoles were a contender to win the title every season for more than a decade. Florida State lost national championship games against Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma and narrowly missed out on the playing for titles in several other seasons because of losses to archrival Miami.

Bowden once quipped that his headstone would read, “But he played Miami,” a one-liner that came the day after the Hurricanes escaped with a 17-16 win in 1991 when the Seminoles missed a field goal wide right in the final seconds. Miami also won in similar fashion in 2002 when a field-goal try went wide left, much to Bowden’s chagrin.

Florida State dominated the ACC under Bowden, winning championships in 12 of its first 14 seasons after joining the league in 1992.

“Bobby Bowden has meant everything to Florida State athletics and so much to college football in general,” Florida State athletic director David Coburn said. “He is a part of the heart and soul of FSU, but it goes beyond even that — he is a big part of the history of the game.”

Bowden was also the patriarch of college football’s most colorful coaching family. Son Tommy Bowden had a 90-49 record at Tulane and Clemson, and son Terry Bowden was 47-17-1 at Auburn. Another son, Jeff, served 13 years coaching wide receivers for his father at Florida State and six seasons as offensive coordinator before he resigned in 2006.

Jeff Bowden’s time at Florida State was rocky and emblematic of the program’s fall off in the early 2000s. Florida State’s offense had slumped to its lowest production in a quarter century and Jeff Bowden was paid $537,500 to resign by boosters.

Bobby Bowden left West Virginia to take over a Florida State program in 1976 that had produced just four wins the three previous seasons. The Seminoles went 5-6 in Bowden’s first year and never again experienced a losing season under a man who said he prepared for football games like World War II generals prepared for battles.

“You face similar tasks of motivation, preparation, teamwork, discipline,” Bowden said. “I probably get the most satisfaction out of putting in the strategies and watching them play out.”

By 1979, Bowden had Florida State positioned for one of the great runs in the annals of college football.

Led by All American nose guard Ron Simmons, the Seminoles enjoyed an 11-0 regular season but lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. In 1993, despite a late slip at Notre Dame, Florida State won its first national title after nearly getting there in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 1992.

Bowden’s lone perfect season came in 1999 when the Seminoles became the first team to go wire-to-wire in The Associated Press rankings, No. 1 from the preseason to finish.

“The first championship was more of a relief,” Bowden said. “I think I was able to enjoy the second one a little more.”

Success also brought a glaring spotlight and Bowden’s program was touched by scandal on a few occasions. The school was put on NCAA probation for five years after several players in 1993 accepted free shoes and other sporting goods from a local store. The episode led former Florida coach Steve Spurrier to dub FSU “Free Shoes University.”

Bowden prided himself on adapting to the times and giving players a second chance, but critics said he was soft on discipline with an eye on winning games.

“If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the national championship every year,” Bowden retorted.

Randy Moss, one of the most talented athletes to attend Florida State, never played a down for the Seminoles and was kicked out of school after a redshirt season for smoking marijuana. In 1999, Warrick was caught in a shopping scam that led to his suspension for two games and probably cost him the Heisman Trophy that year.

“There’s only about 6 inches that turns that halo into a noose,” Bowden was fond of saying during the good days, when he was often called “Saint Bobby” by the Florida State faithful.

The Seminoles won 10 or more games in 18 of Bowden’s 34 seasons at Florida State, but were a relatively mortal 74-42 on the field from 2001-09.

The cheating scandal that led to the loss of a dozen wins from Bowden’s final resume took place in an online music history course from the fall of 2006 through summer 2007. The NCAA said some athletes were provided with answers to exams and in some cases, had papers typed for them.

Despite those tough days near the end of his career, Bowden stayed in the public eye after retirement, writing a book, making speeches and going public with his treatment for prostate cancer in 2007. His fear of retiring from coaching resulted in part from the death of his longtime idol, former Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who died within weeks of leaving the sidelines.

We extend our condolences to Coach Bowden’s family, friends, and colleagues.