FSU legend Bowden will retire

AP ^ | December 1, 2009 | Staff

[C19fan]

Bobby Bowden will end his 44-year coaching career after Florida State plays in a bowl game.

Bowden will retire as the second winningest coach in major-college football behind Penn State's Joe Paterno. The 80-year-old Bowden has won 388 games at Samford, West Virginia and Florida State, where he spent the last 34 seasons.

[C19fan]

Perhaps one can argue he should of retired 5 years ago but one of the greatest of all time.

[SuziQ]

We arrived in Tallahassee in the fall of 1976, the year after we married, for SirKit to attend graduate school. We weren't big football fans, but Bobby Bowden had arrived the year before, and FSU's team was beginning to build. Over the next four years, we spent lots of pleasant Saturday afternoons and evenings in Doak Campbell stadium. And when we couldn't be there for the games, especially after our #1 son was born, we could hear the game from the house we rented, which was about a block away.

Fun times, for sure. I wish Bobby well. He's an old guy now, and I hope he has a few more years to enjoy his family!

[montag813]

It’s official: JoePa’s wins record will stand for all eternity.

[politicianslie]

My Father covered FSU for the FLA TIMES UNION. I used to eat dinner with the coaches on Saturday night, spent many hours in the press box watching stories being written, I’ve played catch with Fred Biletnikoff (pre-Bobby’s years), was there on the 50 yard line in Doke when Steve Spurrier was a freshman, FSU won their first game 16-7 against the Gaotors who at that time I hated!

But then I went to Florida and my father spoke to me less, gave me a hard time when the Gators had problems.... My dad lived to see Bobby’s first trip for the National Championship game but did not live to see the 1990’s championships.

Wish Bobby well but like many, he needed to pack up a few years ago.

[Tallguy]

Samford... (snicker).

[goseminoles]

Bobby is a legend and a class act. I’m glad he has the opportunity to enjoy his family.
I hope we play in the Gator Bowl against W. Virginia Jan.1. That would be a nice way to see Bobby out.

[SuziQ]

We were big FSU fans while we were there, but when we moved away, kind of lost track. We’re not big sports fans of any kind, even up here in the home of the Red Sox, the Celtic and the Patriots.

[LibertarianInExile]

It’s too bad you decided to attend a lesser school and made your father angry at you. But I suppose you can’t stop some kids from being rebellious and stupid at that age.

JUST kidding. I actually attended UF for a graduate degree, too, so I root for both...until your boys play THE university of Florida.

Bowden was a class act up until he started caring less about the program and more about how he could milk it for his family. He and his wife lost a lot of supporters in the last few months with her crass comments and his inability to face reality. I’m glad he left before we had to tear the statue down and brick up the window. But that doesn’t mean I will ever forget that Bowden made FSU choose between suffering with his son’s ineptitude or losing him while he was still the face of a successful program, or that he went back on his own word about leaving the program in good shape, or that his wife thinks Florida State football can’t get along without her husband.

I will look forward to Jimbo proving her senile old @$$ wrong. I will hope that they move Bobby’s statue to overlook the sod graveyard. And I will thank my lucky stars every day that T.K. Wetherell is a Seminole. THERE is a man that deserves a statue on the campus.

[LibertarianInExile]

I’d like to see Bobby play South Carolina and Spurrier one last time. That would be a sendoff reminiscent of the old days. Of course, we’d probably have a better shot at winning against WVU.

[goseminoles]

I really don’t know if we have a chance to win against anyone. I saw your previous post. The mans not senile yet. He’s doing good for 80. And TK is on his way out too.

[LibertarianInExile]

I didn’t say Bobby was senile...and I didn’t seriously mean that his wife was. But she’s certainly lost a lot of respect from Seminole fans for her comments in the last few months.

As to TK being on his way out, that is the worst thing and best thing about this whole Bowden thing. TK made a decision that could only harm people’s opinion of him—there was no problem for him had he dragged his feet and retired after the new President was selected without firing Bowden. As it was, he let FSU gain a new president with clean hands. I have always thought TK was a sharp guy, but to find out he really was willing to take it on the chin from some folks for the good of the school, well, that is a helluva thing for a lame duck to do, especially when he could have simply left and avoided the controversy. The man is a class act to let the institution and its new president avoid the suffering.