When Florida State players take to the field for their first home game of the 2024 season against Boston College on Sept. 2, they will do so at Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium.
That might be one way the university honors the legendary former Seminoles head coach, but Mike Norvell, the current Seminoles head coach, knows and welcomes what comes with sharing a title with the College Football Hall of Famer.
FSU Head Coach Mike Norvell Honored Legendary Coach By Wearing Bowden Tie at ACC Media Days
“Coach Bowden was such a wonderful example for anybody that’s in coaching, college football as a whole, just what he means and meant to Florida State in his time there leading the program,” Norvell said on Monday.
“He’s such an icon for us.”
As he did last season at ACC Media Days, Norvell arrived at the event wearing a garnet tie emblazoned with a Bobby Bowden logo at the bottom to signify The Bowden Society — a group that will provide funding and scholarships for all 20 athletic programs at Florida State.
“A year ago I wore this same tie, and I’m going to continue to do so understanding the great responsibility that I have,” Norvell continued. “Just so grateful for the position I hold, to represent him in his honor.”
Norvell might not have had the time to interact with Bowden much before he died in 2021 at the age of 91, but he will now have his name alongside the iconic coach following Florida State’s season in 2023.
After a 13-0 regular season, which included a conference championship, Norvell was named ACC Coach of the Year, joining Bowden as the only FSU coach to earn the conference’s top coaching honor.
Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 with a plethora of accomplishments at Florida State (1976-2009). Among them are:
- Finished in the top five of the AP Poll 15 times, three more than any other school during his tenure
- The first school to go wire to wire as the AP No. 1 team (1999) after the introduction of the preseason poll in 1950
- Forty-five games coached as the AP No. 1 team, tied with Woody Hayes for the second most all-time behind only Nick Saban (98)
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Norvell knows what an honor it is to coach at the same place as Bowden did for so long and will continue to look for ways to represent his legacy so proudly.
“A little over a year ago we started the Bowden Society to represent his legacy and the gift that he was for FSU.”
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