Penny Thoughts: Personal Reflections on an American Icon

Friday, August 13, Coach Bobby Bowden lay in State in the rotunda of the Tallahassee State Building in Florida.

There have been reams of words published about Coach Bowden throughout his career…and even more have been published since his passing.

What I am trying to do here is to share some personal moments I was privileged to have shared with this American icon.

My first contact with Coach Bowden was when I was Head Football Coach at Maryville College. I was a bit miffed when I had heard that some of his players at Florida State were trying to lure two of my top receivers to transfer to FSU.

Here I was, a Division III coach who had the audacity to even question a top level Division I Coach. I called and left a message.  I was shocked that he returned my call within a half hour. I expressed my frustration. He could have just hung up the phone or could have dressed me down. To my pleasant surprise he treated me like a colleague, acknowledged that if his players had done this, he would talk with them and assured me it would stop.

Imagine how stunned I was…but that was Bobby Bowden.

Two years later when his son, Terry, hired me to be his Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator at Salem College, my education with the Bowden tradition expanded. I had the privilege of spending hours of just sitting and talking with the venerable Coach, asking question after question.  

In our first year at Salem, Terry and I were concerned about the progression of our success. We were sitting outside in Coach’s yard which bordered the Third Hole of the Killearn Country Club. We were concerned that taking over a team at Salem which had a record of 0-20 during the previous three seasons. We told him that it all seemed uphill. He smiled and said, “Well Men, you knew what you were getting into when you took the job,” he chuckled. But he was quick to add, “Your progress should follow this pattern…first you lose big…then you lose close…then you win close…and then, you win big.”  We made a poster of that and put it in the Staff Room. It proved to be true for us. We did jump a few steps and went to the playoffs in the second year.

Another time, I was alone with Coach and we were talking about what it took to be a good coach. He said, “You have heard all the qualities- about coaching…fortitude…determination…and the list goes on-and-on…but what it really boils down to is this, Art…great coaches are great teachers first!”  That has stuck with me in every venture I have engaged in my life.

Everyone who knows Coach Bowden knows that his guiding principles are based in his fundamental Christian belief. When I was Dean at International College, I convinced the Board to award Ann Bowden an Honorary Doctorate.   As we were alone while preparing for the graduation ceremony, I reviewed Coach’s notes for his address to the graduation class. The address had to do with obeying God’s commands. He told me, “Everyone talks the words of Christ, but they neglect the message of ‘Obeying’ those words. And this is the essential problem with modern Christianity. People do not want to obey God.”

There is one more element I witnessed in Coach Bowden’s life. He and his beautiful wife, Ann, raised six successful children. The first time I visited them at one of their family picnics I noticed what their “magic” was. It was “love”.  The entire family was imbued with love…unconditional love…unrelenting love…uncompromising love.

This column may not ever compete with the great many other observations and tributes which have and will honor this great man. It is merely a personal homage to a friend who shared with me a formula for success.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of The West Alabama Watchman.