Dogs get better treatment than Bobby Bowden
In fact, it was a house almost condemned.
Florida State had only won four football games in three seasons, prompting the school president to consider shuttering the program.
Then Bobby Bowden arrived in 1976, the last hope.
“Our first team meeting, Coach Bowden told us that if we listened to him and did what he said, we’d go to a bowl game,” said Jimmy Black, the former Merritt Island High great who was Bowden’s first starting quarterback at FSU. “It was all I could do to keep from raising my hand and saying, ‘Uh, coach, are you nuts? Go to a bowl game? We’ve only won four games in three years. We’re terrible.’ ”
The Seminoles went 5-6 that year.
“Coach Bowden was right, though,” Black said. “I don’t want to get into it, but there were times we didn’t listen to him. But had we, we would’ve had a winning record and gone to a bowl game.”
FloridaToday.com
10/13/9
Magnolia Tribune
