Dear Coach Bowden,
Thank you for coming to Florida State and leading the Seminoles for 34 years. You are the only coach I have ever known at FSU and I am shedding a tear today after hearing you announce your retirement. I have spent all of my adult life and most of my childhood rooting for the Garnet and Gold. Even though you may not be walking the side lines anymore you will cast a shadow over every game that the Seminoles lace up the cleats and buckle up their helmets for a long time to come.
Thank you for coming to Florida State and making the Seminoles into a national powerhouse, respected and feared around the country. Thank you for 34 years of never having a losing season. Thank you for taking our Noles to a bowl game every year since 1982 and taking our Noles to bowl games in 31 of the 34 years you coached at Florida State. Thank you for leading the Noles to 14 consecutive years of being ranked no lower than 5th nationally at the end of the year. Thank you coach, for leading the Noles to 12 ACC Conference Championships. Thank you for bringing home two National Championships to Tallahassee.
I remember the first time we ever met. You shook my hand and asked if I was a Seminole fan. Of course I said yes, and you said, "thank you" to me. The last time I had the chance to speak with you was in a radio interview in 1991 after a Cotton Bowl victory and you let me know that you remembered us meeting, and you thanked me again for being a Seminole faithful. You let me know how important the fans were.
You have given so much to Florida State and so many smiles to Florida State fans. Even in heartbreaking losses you made us smile. You made a nation smile. You leave Florida State a legend just like your hero Paul Bryant left Alabama. You are respected not just by Florida State fans but by a nation of college football fans. You brought a style and class to the college game that will never be matched.
You showed a nation that a college football coach can profess his beliefs in Jesus Christ and God and use that as a building block to overcome any adversity that came your way. You showed a love of family.
I want to thank you for so much but most of all I want to thank you for just being Bobby Bowden.
We love you coach and we will miss you.
Love,
A Fan
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Dad-gummit....we'll miss you Bobby
ReplyDeleteA sad day for the Seminole Nation!! We'll miss you Bobby!!
ReplyDeleteEnd of Era. Not just for Florida State but for college football. Saturdays won't be the same.
ReplyDeleteI hope the Noles lose next year under Fisher just so Bobby can be vindicated. Fisher won't last the legnth of his contract.
ReplyDeleteAlways a class act. Always himself. Always faith in God. You will be missed Bobby.
ReplyDeleteI just wish you could be around another year to lose to the Gators dadgummit....
ReplyDeletecomment sent to my-e-mail:
ReplyDeleteA sad day for the Seminoles! But even sadder for the University!
Even as life long Gator Fan, I am embarrassed by the way the adminstration handled this whole thing. Give me a break. Offering Bobby Bowden another year as the head coach of the program he built, but not giving him the ability to make any decisions, is a major slap in the face of a great man.
Shame on Florida State University!!!!!
The least they could have done was to offer him a position like "Assistant Athletic Director over Football Activities". Let him be that ambassador they claim he is. Show him the dignity he deserves, by giving him the opportunity to accept a position that would be more becoming of a man of his earned stature.
And to those FSU fans that say he has out lived his ability to be the head coach at FSU....Shame on you as well!!
This man gave you the opportunity to root for a first class....winning program.
Even as the coach, that had My Gators Number for many years...I am going to miss the man that "IS" Florida State Football.
I agree with everything the last poster said....it is a sad day for a Seminole fan on all accounts. Bobby deserved to be treated with the same class and respect he has treated everyone else with for his 34 years at FSU. What they offered him was just embarassing! I'm still an FSU fan, but I have to admit that the colors have lost some of their luster for me.
ReplyDeleteBobby not at FSU? I don't know what to say. He is all I have ever known at FSU since I was born and when I could remember. It's kinda like when Walter Cronkite retired. You knew it would happen sooner or later but you never expected.
ReplyDelete