Robert Cleckler Bowden was an American college football coach.
30 Facts About Bobby Bowden
2.
Bobby 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 Seminoles.
3.
Bobby Bowden's Seminoles finished as an AP top-5 team for 14 consecutive seasons, setting a record which doubled the closest program.
4.
Bobby Bowden spent the last part of his career in a race with Joe Paterno to become the winningest NCAA Division I college football coach of all time.
5.
When he was 13 years old, Bobby Bowden was diagnosed with rheumatic fever.
6.
Bobby 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.
7.
Bobby Bowden then returned to Birmingham after only one semester and eloped with his high school sweetheart, Ann Estock, on April 1,1949.
8.
Bobby Bowden transferred to Howard College, where he played football, baseball, ran track and became a brother in Pi Kappa Alpha.
9.
Bobby Bowden left his alma mater to become athletic director as well as head football, baseball, and basketball coach at South Georgia College from 1956 to 1958.
10.
In 1962, Bobby Bowden went to Florida State University as an assistant coach under head coach Bill Peterson.
11.
Bobby Bowden left Florida State in 1965 to go to West Virginia University as an assistant under Jim Carlen.
12.
Bobby Bowden asked NCAA permission to wear Marshall jerseys and play Marshall's final game of the 1970 season against Ohio, but was denied.
13.
Bobby 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.
14.
Lengyel credits Bobby Bowden with helping the young Thundering Herd recover.
15.
Bobby 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.
16.
Bobby Bowden made the move to become the head coach of the Florida State Seminoles in 1976 the same place where he had coached wide receivers because the climate was warmer than in Morgantown, and because Tallahassee was closer to Birmingham, Alabama, where his mother and mother-in-law both lived.
17.
Bobby Bowden said he would be content to finish his career at Florida State and reportedly told another athletic-department employee he would "never coach anywhere north of Tallahassee".
18.
Bobby 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.
19.
One Bobby Bowden Bowl was scheduled between Auburn and Florida State for 1999 when Terry Bobby Bowden was the coach at Auburn.
20.
Bobby Bowden married Ann Estock, his childhood sweetheart, in 1949 and the couple raised six children and 21 grandchildren.
21.
Bobby Bowden was a Christian who credited his success in football to his faith.
22.
Bobby Bowden twice endorsed and supported US President Donald Trump, in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
23.
Bobby Bowden was not the only member of his family to have coached Division I-A football.
24.
On July 21,2021, it was reported that Bobby Bowden was diagnosed with a terminal medical condition.
25.
Bobby Bowden then lay repose at the Moore Athletic Center outside of Doak Campbell Stadium later that day.
26.
Bobby Bowden received the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award for 1991.
27.
In 1992 Bobby Bowden received the United States Sports Academy's Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a coach.
28.
The award recognizes a coach each year with unmatched success on and off of the field in the same attributes that Bobby Bowden showed throughout his career: perseverance, attitude, integrity, and determination.
29.
In 2011, in recognition of his philanthropic efforts with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Bowden received the Children's Champion Award for Leadership Development from the charitable organization Children's Hunger Fund.
30.
From 1987 through 2000, Bobby 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.