Bowden Reflects on a Football Life

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Mack Brown, that's who.

If Bobby Bowden, once an outstanding football player at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Ala., was a top recruit in this day and age and had the opportunity to play for any collegiate coach in the land, it would be ... Brown at the University of Texas. Hook 'em Horns.

"I think we are alike in a lot of ways in that we want to try to have as much fun as we can," Bowden said Tuesday morning in an interview with FanHouse.

"Some coaches, it's life and death and I sure don't want to play for somebody that's life and death. You might win more games, I don't know. The head coaches that I have observed over the years, Mack would probably would be the closest I would want to play for."

Of course, recruits won't get the opportunity to play for Bowden after this season, his 34th on the Florida State sidelines.

Bowden, sitting in a golf cart as his Seminoles went through stretching drills prior to the start of practice, was in great spirits as he reminisced about his legendary career that will end after 417 games in a New Year's Day bowl against West Virginia in nearby Jacksonville.

While the hurt and disappointment remain from a bittersweet parting that came a year earlier than he preferred and with his program no longer one of the nation's elite, Bowden talked candidly at times.

He shared his desire to eclipse 400 career wins with good friend Joe Paterno at Penn State as well as his commitment to make a difference with today's youth when he steps away in retirement next month.

Bowden also discussed the pressure of maintaining the Seminoles' elite status during their remarkable 14 straight top-five finishes in the AP poll from 1987-2000, and, on the flip side, the frustration surrounding his inability to return the program to national prominence this decade.

FSU's last finish in the Top 10 was in 2003 and his 36-27 mark since 2005 wasn't enough to gain him a reprieve.

Bowden's stance regarding his departure also hasn't changed; he refuses to criticize FSU's administration or reveal specifics, though his intention to immediately walk away from the university certainly speaks volumes.

"I've been around long enough to know the pitfalls," Bowden said as he sipped on a soft drink. "I have seen it happen to so many other coaches."

Bowden recalled his time as head coach at West Virginia University when disgruntled Syracuse fans wanted Ben Schwartzalder, a future Hall of Famer who had directed the program for more than two decades and won its lone national title in 1959, to retire before he actually did in 1973.
Bowden also remembered when worrisome Alabama fans growled at the Bear when Bryant, despite winning three national titles in the previous eight years, dipped to consecutive six-win seasons in 1969 and 1970. Bryant responded with three more national titles during his iconic career.

"I think Bear was AD so he kept himself on," Bowden laughed.

Bowden, however, was unable to finish under his terms as head coach following two days of emotional meetings with retiring FSU president T.K. Wetherell, a former player at FSU when Bowden was an assistant coach with the Seminoles (1963-65), and athletics director Randy Spetman.

An upset Bowden, as reported by FanHouse, initially contemplated not coaching in the bowl game but changed his mind, saying he didn't want to quit on his players.

While Bowden's future has been the source of speculation for years, the heat increased earlier this season when Jim Smith, chairman of the university's trustees, said Bowden should leave after this season.

Ann Bowden, Bobby's wife of 60 years, publicly chastised those who wanted her husband gone and challenged university officials to fire him. Bowden understands how those comments read but he won't criticize his wife because "she says what she feels. I respect her for it and I never try to tell her what to say."

Bowden stepped down on Tuesday, Dec. 1, never mentioning the word retirement. He wants neither fanfare nor fuss over his departure.

"The main thing is I wanted to go one more year, but I knew how this thing works," Bowden said.

"I knew it could happen to me. I didn't think it would, but it did. But I was about through anyway."

With 388 career wins, Bowden is ranked behind Paterno (393) as the NCAA's second all-time winningest FBS coach. Bowden, however, could be stripped of 14 wins by the NCAA if the school's appeal regarding the organization's investigation into an academic cheating scandal that spanned 10 sports, including football, is not accepted.

Bowden's 20-10-1 record in bowl games also ranks second all-time behind Paterno (23 victories), who turns 83 on Dec. 21. Bowden expects Paterno, who survived the retirement nudge from school officials in 2004, to coach beyond his 85th birthday.

Paterno is 50-13 over the past five seasons after suffering four losing seasons in a five-year span.

"I don't think I could have caught Joe, especially if they take those games away -- then it's out of the question," Bowden said.

"If they gave them back, you never know what's going to happen. The fact that Joe is going to continue to coach -- and I was only going to coach one more year -- he was going to win that battle, which is good. Then you have the goal of trying to win 400 games. Then you and Joe -- even though he's won more games -- you are the only two guys to ever reach 400 in I-A. That goal is gone.

""I knew it could happen to me. I didn't think it would, but it did. But I was about through anyway."
-- Bobby BowdenThen being close to Joe in the bowl games; there's always a chance to catch him there. You always have to have goals, but those are now gone."

New goals have emerged -- not in wins or losses but in the motivation to help make a difference, specifically using his Christian beliefs from behind behind the podium or pulpit to touch today's youth.

Bowden, who smiles when he says he must now find ways to earn a weekly paycheck to replace his annual $2.5-million coaching salary, said his speaking calendar has filled quickly. It's believed that speakers commanding between $10,000 to $25,000 include former Notre Dame coach and current ESPN analyst Lou Holtz.

"I will still have main objectives I want to accomplish in life before I go," Bowden said.

Bowden, of course, had the Seminoles going in the right direction like none other from 1987-2000, when they went 152-18-1 and captured national titles in 1993 and 1999.

The 1999 team became the first and only squad to ever go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the AP poll. FSU also played for the title three other times during that span and since 1993, no other team in the FBS has played for more national titles than FSU.

"Maintaining the dynasty was very hard. Talk about pressure, that was pressure," Bowden said.

"When we won like we did and played in those BCS bowls, the pressure to win was there. But it's difficult to maintain."

A similar pressure, but under different circumstances, engulfed Bowen this decade. FSU has lost at least six games in three of the last four years and could end with a losing record for the first time since Bowden's first season at FSU in 1976 if the Seminoles tumble to West Virginia.

With 17 starters, including 10 of 11 on offense, set to return, FSU should be an improved team in 2010 under Jimbo Fisher. Fisher, the Seminoles' offensive coordinator, was named head coach-in-waiting after his initial season at FSU in 2007.

"Trying to get back on top, there's pressure there too now," Bowden said.

"But I will say it's easier to get there than stay there [at the top]. Honestly, every year I felt like we were going to do it. It has been a struggle trying to get back up there. Most of the time we were coming pretty close ... it just hasn't happened."

And the inevitable has happened in Florida's Big Bend.

In 34 seasons in Tallahassee, Bowden is 315-97-4 and has taken FSU to 31 bowl games, including each of the last 28 seasons, an NCAA record.

The capacity at Doak Campbell Stadium grew from 40,500 seats to 82,300, and the field was named in his honor in 2004, and a statue of Bowden's likeness stands in front of the athletic center. Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame along with Paterno in 2006.

Not too shabby for a guy who started his high school football career as a undersized halfback lined up in the Notre Dame Box, a variation of the single-wing formation.

Brown, a former player at FSU in the early 1970s who is now the country's highest-paid college football coach at $5 million annually, would surely be impressed

Bowden, a talented player, moved to quarterback and fulfilled a lifelong dream when he played on Alabama's freshman team before he transferred to Howard College in his hometown of Birmingham and married Ann.

"I'd probably be better off at quarterback, even though there's not many places for quarterbacks my size (5-foot-8) any more these days," Bowden smiled.

"When I played, football wasn't sophisticated at all; it was a physical game. You didn't have flankers.

"I think we finally started splitting people out when I finished playing in 1952."

A coach emerged from that player. He had fun and made history along the way.

However, as Bowden experienced earlier this month, nothing lasts forever.