Samford To Dedicate Football Field To Bobby Bowden

HOMEWOOD, AL — Samford University announced this week it will rename the football field on its campus after former Bulldog player and coach Bobby Bowden. Bowden died Aug. 8 at the age of 91.

The field dedication will take place at halftime of Samford's Sept. 25 game against East Tennessee State.

Bowden, a Birmingham native, starred at Woodlawn High School and played quarterback for the University of Alabama and later transferred to Howard College (now Samford University) where he played football, baseball and ran track. He returned to coach the Bulldogs, and compiled a 31–6 record between 1959 and 1962.

Bowden then went on to coach at West Virginia before landing at Florida State, where he became a college football coaching legend.

Bowden was named national coach of the year six times (1979, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1999) and led Florida State to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship 12 times including eight in a row from 1992-2000, after the university spent the first 16 years of his career as an independent.
He piled up 377 wins during 40 years as a major college coach and his teams won a dozen Atlantic Coast Conference titles and national championships in 1993 and 1999.

Perhaps the statistic that jumps off the page is his sustained success with Florida State, which finished the season ranked in the top five of The Associated Press college football poll an unmatched 14 straight seasons (1987-2000) under his tutelage.