By: Brandon Wise/Staff Writer
The 82-year-old football coach visited the University on Oct. 27 to speak about his career and the lessons he has learned as a coach and as a man of firm faith.
Bowden, who retired from coaching in 2010, said that he plans on pursuing new projects despite his full career.
“I don’t want to sit around and do nothing,” said Bowden. “I want to work until I die.”
Bowden carried a message with him throughout his speech that he wants people to grasp: get your priorities straight.
“Mothers ask me all the time ‘Coach, I’m worried about my son. What can you tell him to make him successful?’ Tell your son to get his priorities in the right place. Number 1: God. Number 2: your family. Number 3: your education. Number 4: everything else.”
Bowden, who grew up as a Southern Baptist, believes that he was called to coach, which is also the title of his book. Throughout his career he espoused the philosophy that religion, specifically his, is a strong asset in not only football but life beyond the field.
The coach told several anecdotes of his past when he shared his religion with his players and how it affected their lives.
“I use to tell my boys, Bowden said. “ ‘You go to class up at Florida State and listen to the professors talk and they tell you who they worship and you listen to them don’t yeah? You don’t have to believe what they say, but you listen. Your going to listen to me.”
“People will say ‘Well you’re not politically correct.’ I don’t care,” said Bowden. “I’d rather be spiritually correct than politically correct.”
The event was hosted by the University’s Program in the Study of Spirituality, the College of Business Administration and Baptist Health South Florida. Dr. Nathan Katz, the director of the program in the Study of Spirituality, spoke about the importance of studying spirituality before the speech.
Judney Pierre, a junior studying business administration, was surprised about what the speech was centered around.
“I was expecting a more athletic conversation,” said Pierre. “ But I think I received a conversation based more around spirituality and who he was as a human being.”
“I’ve always been more impressed by Bobby Bowden the person rather than Bobby Bowden the figurehead.”
Among those in attendance for the speech was former player Wayne Messam, who played as wide receiver from 1992 to 1996 for the Seminoles. Messam is currently the commissioner of the city of Miramar and owner of Asset Builders. The former wide receiver remembered a time when he had to tell coach Bowden he was going to miss practice.
“There was a movement going on called the Million Man March,” Messam said. “And I was going to have to miss a day of practice to attend the rally. You could only imagine the courage and audacity it took for me to go to coach Bowden and tell him I was going to miss practice. But, he accepted it and wanted to find out more about it. It spoke to the kind of person he was.”
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