Happy New Year from Toronto—Plus, a Bobby Bowden Story

Posted Jan 1, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Jan 1, 2010 at 11:32 AM

Hey everyone, Happy New Year! I hope everyone stayed safe last night and had a good time wherever you were.

I spent the night hanging outside in the rain and snow as downtown Toronto brought in the New Year with a celebration reminiscent of the one in Times Square.

I’ll be heading over to the International Bowl’s Kickoff Luncheon in a little while and will provide some final notes leading up to tomorrow’s game.

Before I head out, I ask one final favor leftover from 2009: A chance to share a personal Bobby Bowden story. I woke up this morning and turned on the TV, and Bowden’s final game today as Florida State’s coach in the Gator Bowl is even news on TSN—Canada’s version of ESPN.

For those of you who are regulars on the blog, you know that I spent four years covering FSU before returning to Tampa recently to cover USF. I’m glad to report I’m finally getting to know a lot of folks around the USF beat and plan to bring you better insights and reports in coming months.

In some ways, USF’s biggest win in school history played a key role in the beginning of the end of Bowden’s career at FSU. When the Bulls beat the Seminoles in late September at Doak Campbell Stadium, the alarms sounded in Tallahassee. USF didn’t just beat FSU, the Bulls beat the Seminoles up that day, and were not only the better team, but the more passionate team.

I remember hanging around talking to Bowden in the postgame press conference and you could tell the loss served a true wake-up call. He said USF “was better than expected,’’ and deserved to win.

The Noles were coming off their big win at BYU the prior week, and those close to the program hoped that was the kind of win that would finally launch the Noles back toward the top of the polls. Never happened. The USF loss started a downward spiral that ultimately led to the administration forcing Bowden out last month, making today’s Gator Bowl against West Virginia his final game.

The image of a worn down Bowden after that USF loss is one that has stuck with me the past few months. However, my favorite memories of Bowden are the ones of the man, not the coach.

I found out what kind of man he really is shortly after The Tampa Tribune decided to eliminate its FSU beat reporting position in July 2008. I quickly picked up an assignment to write a cover story on the twilight of Bowden’s career for Tallahassee Magazine. The interview was around three weeks after I lost my job at the Tribune and I had not seen Bowden for a couple of months.

Tina Dechausay, FSU’s sports information director, set up the interview for me in Bowden’s office. Unknowingly to me, she had told Bowden about my situation and what my interview was about.

As I walked into Bowden’s office, he got up out of his office chair and came over to shake my hand like he usually would on trips there. However, he surprised me by showing real concern about my situation and wondered if he could help, even offering to be a reference if I needed one. It’s a gesture that I’ll never forget. I never took him up on his offer, but that’s the kind of man he really is.

You may remember me writing a blog about the death of longtime FSU beat reporter Steve Ellis in November. Steve covered the Seminoles for 28 years, most of them for the Tallahassee Democrat. The week after FSU lost to USF, the Noles lost at Boston College. After a lot of internal strife, Steve wrote that it was time for the Bowden Era to end.

You can imagine the attention that column got in Tallahassee and around the nation, the hometown paper’s beat writer/columnist calling for Bowden to call it a career.

At Steve’s memorial service in late November, several fellow beat writers and FSU types paid their respects by speaking to the hundreds in attendance.

Bobby Bowden was one of them.

Best of luck in your retirement, Coach.