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Bowden: How Bobby Bowden Forged a Football Dynasty
He is a giant among coaches, a Hall of Famer with a legacy that spans six full decades of coaching, and arguably the greatest Division I college football coach in history. And now Bobby Bowden finally has a biography that befits his stature: Bowden by award-winning journalist and author Mike Freeman.
Based on six years of research and interviews with Bowden himself, not to mention the Bowden family, former players, and opposing coaches, Bowden is the complete stunning story of the making of a legend.
Despite growing up in the segregated South and witnessing the ugly racism of the time, Bowden still developed into one of the most race-sensitive coaches in college history. When sick as a child, he listened to the radio and gained a taste for war strategy and for Alabama football games on Saturdays. He played football in high school but decided he wanted to be a coach. After years of turning around smaller football programs, and following a tumultuous but successful head coaching tenure at West Virginia University, Bowden accepted the post at Florida State University (FSU), a failing program that was regularly beaten by in-state rival University of Florida. In fact, just the year before Bowden became coach, in 1975, the president of FSU contemplated terminating the program altogether, particularly because the team had won only four games in the past three years.
What Bowden accomplished at FSU is nothing short of miraculous: twenty-one bowl wins and two national championships. And he was the only coach to secure a top-five ranking in the Associated Press polls for fourteen straight seasons. A brilliant tactician, he helped usher the pro passing game into college football, after initially doubting it could work on the college level. He has been an unrivaled recruiter, not only coaching his players but also becoming a surrogate father to many of them, all while producing thirty-one consensus All-Americans over the course of his tenure. He spawned one of the greatest rivalries in sports against the University of Miami. He trails only Penn State's Joe Paterno in career victories.
Along the way he has had to deal with family tragedies, scandals, and the rise and fall of his three sons' coaching careers. But he has been steadfast, with his good humor intact and with Ann, his wife of sixty years, at his side, raising a family of six children and now twenty-one grandchildren. As he nears the end of his career, though, the critics have their knives out, claiming, among many other things, that he has become a dinosaur who clings to his job so that he can win more games than Paterno.
This work examines the total Bowden and is the first of its kind on a one-of-a-kind coach. Poignant, blunt, and eye-opening, Bowden is a towering biography of a man who has left his mark on FSU and the game of college football.
Based on six years of research and interviews with Bowden himself, not to mention the Bowden family, former players, and opposing coaches, Bowden is the complete stunning story of the making of a legend.
Despite growing up in the segregated South and witnessing the ugly racism of the time, Bowden still developed into one of the most race-sensitive coaches in college history. When sick as a child, he listened to the radio and gained a taste for war strategy and for Alabama football games on Saturdays. He played football in high school but decided he wanted to be a coach. After years of turning around smaller football programs, and following a tumultuous but successful head coaching tenure at West Virginia University, Bowden accepted the post at Florida State University (FSU), a failing program that was regularly beaten by in-state rival University of Florida. In fact, just the year before Bowden became coach, in 1975, the president of FSU contemplated terminating the program altogether, particularly because the team had won only four games in the past three years.
What Bowden accomplished at FSU is nothing short of miraculous: twenty-one bowl wins and two national championships. And he was the only coach to secure a top-five ranking in the Associated Press polls for fourteen straight seasons. A brilliant tactician, he helped usher the pro passing game into college football, after initially doubting it could work on the college level. He has been an unrivaled recruiter, not only coaching his players but also becoming a surrogate father to many of them, all while producing thirty-one consensus All-Americans over the course of his tenure. He spawned one of the greatest rivalries in sports against the University of Miami. He trails only Penn State's Joe Paterno in career victories.
Along the way he has had to deal with family tragedies, scandals, and the rise and fall of his three sons' coaching careers. But he has been steadfast, with his good humor intact and with Ann, his wife of sixty years, at his side, raising a family of six children and now twenty-one grandchildren. As he nears the end of his career, though, the critics have their knives out, claiming, among many other things, that he has become a dinosaur who clings to his job so that he can win more games than Paterno.
This work examines the total Bowden and is the first of its kind on a one-of-a-kind coach. Poignant, blunt, and eye-opening, Bowden is a towering biography of a man who has left his mark on FSU and the game of college football.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 23, 2009
4 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Mike Freeman
8 books3 followersMike Freeman is an NFL Insider for CBSSports.com. Before that, he was an NFL writer, investigative reporter, and columnist for the New York Times; a columnist for the Florida Times-Union; and a sports reporter, features writer, and investigative writer for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Dallas Morning News.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 18, 2017
Spoiler alert: I'm a Gator fan. I was curious to read about Bobby Bowden after having read about other coaches and did not want my fandom to prevent me from getting to know the story of one of college football's most successful stories. There was proficient story telling about Bowden's early years and rise into the coaching field. The author touched on the Bowden sons and their coaching rivalries as well.
My favorite thing about the book was that it was fairly written to include both the good and bad of Bowden's career (the author says he touches on FSU scandals and he does). It goes into detail about the challenges rebuilding football programs, recruiting, keeping boosters happy, and dealing with media scrutiny. There are a handful of game recaps that I breezed over, but Seminole fans would probably enjoy the flashbacks.
Despite my disdain for the garnet and gold, I would love to have played for Bowden. He has a clear religious background that guides him as a person and as a coach. He was innovative and did what it took to win. Bowden may not have retired with his team on top, but he helped take a former all female school and turn it into a football power house.
My favorite thing about the book was that it was fairly written to include both the good and bad of Bowden's career (the author says he touches on FSU scandals and he does). It goes into detail about the challenges rebuilding football programs, recruiting, keeping boosters happy, and dealing with media scrutiny. There are a handful of game recaps that I breezed over, but Seminole fans would probably enjoy the flashbacks.
Despite my disdain for the garnet and gold, I would love to have played for Bowden. He has a clear religious background that guides him as a person and as a coach. He was innovative and did what it took to win. Bowden may not have retired with his team on top, but he helped take a former all female school and turn it into a football power house.
November 14, 2023
Mike Freeman present the football life and career of Bowden from start to finish. Starting with how his interest grew as a young kid through his career at FSU and all the steps along the way. The writer present all phases of the Bowden's family (wife Ann) (sons and daughter) some of the ups and downs they shared as a family. The ups and downs of various actions over decades by student athletes and both the good and bad decisions in how he handled adversity associated with them. The book talks to the struggles and adversities along his coaching formation at his early coaching stops and as he climbed through WVU and taken the job at FSU. Talks about both the highs and lows of key games through the 80's until completions of the career in the 2000's. Bowden maintained a strong spiritual belief and instilled same in his players. Good read for coaches involved in the sport of Football.
January 10, 2025
A look at the life and accomplishment of (one of) the greatest college football coaches of all time.
Reading stories of his early time all the way to 2008, Mr. Freeman has done an excellent job at capturing what makes (made) Coach Bowden so well remembered today.
Reading stories of his early time all the way to 2008, Mr. Freeman has done an excellent job at capturing what makes (made) Coach Bowden so well remembered today.
May 1, 2018
It's fine, but nothing special. The book reads like a bunch of disconnected essays relating to Bobby Bowden rather than a biography of him. The pacing and structure is abysmal and I have no clue how it ended up like this in its final form. Also, what's disappointing is how little the actual teams, players, and games are discussed. I was hoping this would also function as a history of Florida State football in miniature and it is not that. Players such as Peter Warrick, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, and Deion Sanders are barely mentioned at all and not in any substantive way. A disappointing book that admittedly does offer a decent enough portrait of Bowden for hardcore Florida State fans.
January 10, 2010
Loved reading about Bobby, a football icon. The book deals primarily with Bobby's early years but also addresses the glory years of the 90s when Florida State dominated the football landscape.
July 23, 2012
Very poorly written. Author either has no vocabulary or he assumes his audience doesn't.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews