RIP Bobby Bowden | The Boneyard

RIP Bobby Bowden

RIP Coach

I had a front row seat to some of those epic Miami-FSU wars of the 80s and 90s. Some of the greatest collection of talent ever assembled on a CFB field.

He often joked that "But he played Miami" would be on his grave stone. To me it should be that he never ducked anyone and that he had a good impact on many young men who could have gone down the wrong road.
 
RIP Coach

I had a front row seat to some of those epic Miami-FSU wars of the 80s and 90s. Some of the greatest collection of talent ever assembled on a CFB field.

He often joked that "But he played Miami" would be on his grave stone. To me it should be that he never ducked anyone and that he had a good impact on many young men who could have gone down the wrong road.
By the same token, more often than not, Bowden had Steve Spurrier’s number whenever FSU played FL. Even more grating on Spurrier was the fact that reporters in the Sunshine State loved Bowden’s “ah shucks” style while generally being indifferent to Spurrier, “the football genius” in Gainesville.
 
.-.
Was a Coach Bowden fan from the time he was the head coach at WVU. Was not happy that he went to Florida State but what a career he had there.
 
Worked for more than 20 years, taught courses, received my Ph.D. and retired from FSU.

In the early 90's while interviewing at FSU I had a couple of hours between interviews. I was wandering around the New Athletics Building (The men were in the New building and the women in the old building.) near the football auditorium. Coach snuck up behind me (I wandered into "football only" area) and quipped in his southern drawl, "was there anything in particular you were looking for?" I turned around and found myself looking eye to eye with coach. I said hi coach and told him I was interviewing for a job and my back ground. He was genuine with not too big of an ego. We talked for about 30 minutes. I always had a friendly relationship with him. He usually called me Boston. He was sly like a fox and had more clout than the Governor of Florida.

His players, however, were usually a handful in class. One player I remember (I won't use his name, but he became an NFL Pro Bowler.) . At the end of the first class he asked me "Coach, I have to go to class?"
 

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