Obituaries

Former Florida State Football Coach Bobby Bowden Dies At 91

Bowden built the Florida State program into a powerhouse that won 22 bowl games and two national titles in his 33 years as its coach.

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Bobby Bowden's last game was the 2010 Gator Bowl, where Florida State beat West Virginia 33-21. He coached 500 games at Florida State.
Bobby Bowden's last game was the 2010 Gator Bowl, where Florida State beat West Virginia 33-21. He coached 500 games at Florida State. (Doug Benc/Getty Images))

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Bobby Bowden, the legendary Florida State football coach who led the team to more than 300 victories and two national championships, has died. He was 91.

Bowden died at home surrounded by his family, his son Terry Bowden told the Tallahassee Democrat. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this summer, the paper reported.

Bobby Bowden began coaching at Florida State in 1976 after six years as the coach at West Virginia University, taking over a program that was 4-29 over the previous three seasons, according to the university's website, which posted a tribute to Bowden. The Seminoles were 5-6 in Bowden's first year; it was their only losing season during his tenure. He retired after the 2009 season, finishing his career with a 33-21 victory over West Virginia in the 2010 Gator Bowl.

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The Seminoles went on to become a national powerhouse, appearing in 28 straight bowl games and winning national championships in 1993 and 1999. The national championships came as Bowden compiled 14 straight 10-win seasons (1987-2000), the only coach in NCAA Division I-A to do so. The first title came over Tom Osborne’s Nebraska team in the 1994 Orange Bowl. In 1999, Florida State was the first team in the history of the Associated Press poll to go wire-to-wire ranked No. 1, and the Seminoles finished the perfect season with a victory over Virginia Tech in the 2000 Sugar Bowl.

He 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.

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"Coach Bowden was one of the greatest coaches ever but more than that he was an incredible man," said Mike Norvell, the Seminoles' current coach, in a statement. "He was a special human being who earned an enduring legacy because of his wonderful heart, faith and values he lived. It was the honor of my lifetime to know him and beyond anything I could dream to have a relationship with him."

"The entire Florida State family is hurting right now at the loss of our program's patriarch," Norvell said.

Tributes poured in from coaches and football programs around the country, including his closest rivals at the University of Florida and the University of Miami.

"Condolences to the Bowden and @FSUFootball family. We have lost a remarkable man and coach. RIP Coach Bowden," the Gators' program tweeted.

The rivalry with Miami became one of the most intense in college football under Bowden's tenure, with games coming down to the final play year after year.

"We lost a great man today. Coach Bowden was one-of-a-kind and touched so many lives. I’m so fortunate to call him a mentor and friend," North Carolina coach Mack Brown tweeted.

Alabama coach Nick Saban called Bowden "a wonderful friend whose accomplishments as a coach are only surpassed by the character and class he displayed as a husband, father, mentor and friend."

Saban said that in 1973, when his father died of a heart attack at age 46, Bowden offered to make room for Saban on the Mountaineers' coaching staff so he could be closer to his mother if needed.

"How many coaches would do that?" he said. "How many people would do that?"

Bowden finished with 377 wins during his 44 years as a major college coach, from tiny Samford — his alma mater, then known as Howard College — to West Virginia and finally at Florida State, where he went 315-98-4. He retired after the 2009 season, soon after a university-wide cheating scandal led to the NCAA stripping Florida State of victories in 10 sports because of an academic cheating scandal in 2006 and ’07 involving 61 athletes, the Associated Press reported.

Bowden was born Nov. 8, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama, and survived rheumatic fever as a child. He was the quarterback at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, then attended Alabama for a semester before transferring to his hometown Howard University, where he starred at quarterback, the AP reported.

He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Ann; his sons Terry, Tommy, Jeff and Steve; and daughters Robyn Hines and Ginger Madden, and his grandchildren.

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