As much as I have joked about it, even been downright sadistic about it, over the last few years, there is a small empty spot in my gut now.  I can’t say how long it will last, probably until the next genuine crazy man has been around college football for a few years. Coach Bowden is nothing if not an original.  He didn’t need an athletic director, SID or some sycophant sportswriters to build an artificial persona. He was born with it, like a clubfoot or a penchant for mathematics.  Coach Bowden could never have been anything but what he was – genius football coach, family man, obsessive – compulsive winner and plain old, all around nice guy.

Bobby was never afraid to stick his neck in the hole in the fence, even after getting blasted with a hose so many times. He never accepted the fact that it might be hard to win at Howard or West Virginia or Florida State. It never entered his mind that he couldn’t. After being publicly humiliated by search committees, ADs and presidents at Alabama twice, he never thought twice about going back for that third ass whipping. In the end, he came out the big winner.  When the world joked about Free Shoes U and player discipline and a few bad apples through the years, he just Aw Shucked and Dad Gummed his way through it and out the other side, a winner. Bobby can’t play golf worth a damn, but he would always show up, making a load of money for a lot of charities, drawing huge galleries and at the dinner that night, get the biggest laughs and longest ovations.

Here’s Coach Bowden, a rural huckster from a middle class neighborhood of heavy industry Birmingham. The man who seemed so simpatico with the peanut and tomato farmers of  the North Florida – Southern Alabama and Georgia triangle, who recruited and coached some of the best players to come out of the urban centers of the country. A guy who wore his baggy old khakis and cheap knit shirt to the practice field or the country club. A man who would ignore his daddy’s banker friends at a street corner to stop, crouch down and hand a stick of gum to some snot nosed kid who may have received one bit of positive attention from an adult in his life. A man who became the butt of countless jokes, many of them mine, just for being Bobby.

I’ll leave it to others to copy and paste the stats, argue the relevance of this or that win. The fact remains; Bobby Bowden invented football in the state of Florida. From day one he put in a top flight staff and went about teaching hardnosed football. He took on top flight opponents when FSU was hardly a top flight team. He studied the history of the game and revered its legends. Now he is one. Not the instant variety either, but a legend because he sustained a level of excellence over many years.

The one thing that seemed to escape Bobby in his later years was timing. He should have gone out on his own terms, but those terms should have been that he leave when he could no longer do the job. It would have been great for him to use this past season as a victory lap. He would have been the toast of ESPN. QB and Touchdown Clubs all over Florida would have been falling over each other to present him with bass boats, Dodge trucks, Piagets and beer distributorships. Instead, he had to be dragged like a passed out 275 lb. drunk at closing time. What a shame.

Now his career is going almost full circle. Bowden will be facing West Virginia in the Gator Bowl. The team that brought him his earliest success will most likely be a heavy favorite to end his career on a very low note. At least he will be close to home, where a dwindling fan base might find it easy to rise up one last time to pay tribute to this great coach and man. There are few things I would enjoy more than to see Coach Bowden lead his team to a surprising win in his last game. It doesn’t seem like much to ask. I’ve seen a lot of coaches come and go, but other than Coach Bryant, none have had the long term positive impact of Coach Bowden.

So long Coach. Catch a lot of fish, get that handicap under +25 and take Ann to France, you both deserve it. Thanks for everything.

Ed: The Gator Bowl just announced that the game sold out within 2 hours of tickets going on sale.

Tags: Bobby Bowden, College Football, College Football News, Florida State, Gator Bowl, NCAA College Football, NCAA Football

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