{"id":3333,"date":"2013-09-01T13:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T17:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=3333"},"modified":"2013-09-02T04:02:13","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T08:02:13","slug":"a-conversation-with-legendary-florida-state-football-coach-bobby-bowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/09\/a-conversation-with-legendary-florida-state-football-coach-bobby-bowden.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with legendary Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former<\/a>
Former Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden gives a pre-game speech (Photo courtesy of Florida State Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his 44 years as a head football coach, Bobby Bowden compiled 377 wins (second most all-time) and two national championships (1993 and 1999).<\/p>\n

But Bowden is just as known for his Southern charm and outspoken Christian beliefs. In this Inspiring Athletes interview with Bowden (who retired after the 2009 season), he talks about how his faith and how it guided him throughout his career.<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: You\u2019ve always worn your faith on your sleeve. How did your belief in God impact your coaching?<\/p>\n

Bobby Bowden: You can live by biblical principles and you can teach by those principles and still be a winner. So many coaches think you\u2019ve got to kick your players in rear end. You\u2019ve got to cuss them out. You\u2019ve got to hit them across the head. No. You don\u2019t have to do that. You don\u2019t have to touch a kid. You don\u2019t have to scream at a kid. But you can take the principles of the Bible and you can take the principles of Jesus Christ and transfer them right into coaching.<\/p>\n

Bonham: In what ways did your faith influence your coaching?<\/p>\n

Bowden: The Bible is big in my teaching. It\u2019s a wonder the ACLU didn\u2019t get after me pretty good. I really kept thinking they would. I took my boys to church. I took my football team to church. I only did it two times a year. Before I signed a kid, I\u2019d write the parents and I\u2019d tell that parent we were gong to take your son to church twice. We were going to take him to a predominantly white church one Sunday and we were going to take him to a predominately black church the next Sunday. Our whole team, black and white, I wanted them to see they were welcome no matter what the color of their skin was at either church. If they didn\u2019t want their son to participate because they thought I was infringing upon their rights, I wouldn\u2019t do it. After 34 years here at Florida State, I only had about two parents that asked me not to include their son and I didn\u2019t. And they were Christian people. I think they thought I was trying to get them to go to my church. I didn\u2019t want to take them to my church. I didn\u2019t want them to think I was trying to proselytize them.<\/p>\n

We also had prayer before the game and we had prayer after the game. Every Friday night when I talked to the kids before the game, I\u2019d have a devotion. Every morning that our coaching staff would meet, we started off with a devotion. We\u2019d read scripture and end with a prayer. We\u2019d have 17 coaches sitting around the table and we\u2019d take turns leading the devotion. I didn\u2019t expect them to believe what I believed, but I wanted to hear what they believed. I\u2019m sure the ACLU would be very disappointed in me. I told our president, \u201cIf they ever say anything about it, I\u2019ll go underground, because I\u2019m not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonham: How did your faith help you deal with adversity?<\/p>\n

Bowden: People that are brilliant and successful, we think they\u2019ve just always been that way. That\u2019s not the case. Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life. It\u2019s prepared them. I\u2019ve never felt like you could develop character without adversity. A guy\u2019s who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won\u2019t have any character. But when you\u2019ve had it tough and you\u2019ve had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that\u2019s the way you build character.<\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln lost every appointment he ever ran for until he was elected President. Coach (John) Wooden went through 14 seasons at UCLA before he hit the top. I had six years in a row where I was in the top four in the nation and didn\u2019t win a national championship. I came out second. I came out third. I came out fourth. I came out second again. I came out third. And then it looked like I wasn’t going to win one and then we finally won a national championship. We all have to face a lot of adversity when we\u2019re trying to get where we want to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his 44 years as a head football coach, Bobby Bowden compiled 377 wins (second most all-time) and two national championships (1993 and 1999). But Bowden is just as known for his Southern charm and outspoken Christian beliefs. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3354,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}