The passing of Florida State coaching legend Bobby Bowden this past week brought back several locally-rooted memories regarding him and our hometown. 

A lot of newcomers may not know that for many years Bowden would bring the FSU football team to stay in Thomasville on Friday nights before Seminole home games. When Bowden was hired back by FSU in the mid ’70s some of the more prominent Seminole boosters were located right here in Thomasville, including Mina Jo Powell and her sister Ethel, the owners of the local Holiday Inn on US 19, which is now the Comfort Inn. 

Mina Jo was a 1950 FSU graduate, and she founded the Southwest Georgia Seminole Club in Thomasville and was one of the original Golden Chiefs. She also was the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the Seminole Boosters organization.

At some point along the way, the sisters and Coach Bowden worked it out for his team to load up on charter buses after their Friday evening walk-through and make the hour-ish trip up Highway 319 for the team and the Seminole coaches to spend the night at the hotel. More on that later. 

When I started calling Central High School’s football games on the radio back in 1986, it wasn’t unusual to look from Central’s press box toward Jackson Street and see Coach Bowden outside the fence watching the games. Of course, it was during 1986 and ’87 that he recruited then-Yellow Jacket quarterback Charlie Ward, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy and lead FSU and Bowden to their first national championship in 1993.

It was in 1993 I had a chance to visit with Coach Bowden when he came to Thomas County Central to speak at the “Hometown Heisman” celebration held in Charlie’s honor inside Central’s gym. I had seen Coach Bowden a thousand times on television, and always loved his down-home “dadgummit” persona. 

Much to my pleasure, it didn’t take a minute into our conversation for that side of him to come out. I introduced myself as the radio guy for Central, and as he reached out to shake my hand immediately became the guy I knew so well. 

“Well now,” he said through a raised pitch voice and a big grin. “I’ve heard you more than a few times on our trips up here on Friday nights.”

I asked him how the tradition of coming to the Rose City had started, and again, his response was pure Bowden.

“Well you know, I wanted to find a way to get our guys out of Tallahassee before our home games and away from all the distractions and temptations there,” he said. “The Powell sisters up here were big FSU supporters, and I happened to say something about what I wanted to do at one of the booster meetings here. I really hadn’t thought about bringing them to Thomasville, but in about five minutes they had it figured out for me!”

The tradition would continue through Bowden’s entire career. 

It was Bowden’s sincerity and that genuineness that was his greatest recruiting tool. When the conversation turned to Charlie Jr., the first thing he talked about was Charlie Sr. and his wife, Willard.

“It was plain as day his mama and daddy were wanting Charlie to go somewhere where he’d be able to play basketball and football, and I think I might have been the only coach to promise them I wouldn’t have any problem with that,” he smiled. “I think they could tell I wasn’t going to lie to them.”

But Charlie Jr. wasn’t the first Thomas County player to go to Florida State. When Bowden first arrived at FSU in 1976, he recruited Charles Barnes and Keith Singletary from Central to become Seminoles, and then in 1985 convinced Central’s John Wyche to wear the garnet and gold. After Charlie Jr., he also was successful in recruiting Yellow Jackets Debrale Smiley and Amp McCloud to come play for him. 

“You look back at the best teams we’ve had,” he said through those trademark squinted eyes, “there ain’t no way to deny that players from South Georgia have been at the heart of them.”

My time with Coach Bowden was brief while he was here that day in 1993, but it was a treasure for me. The moment I will never forget happened as he got ready to walk off and be a part of the program, when he reached his hand back out to shake mine again.

“It was a pleasure talking to you,” he said. 

Now you take that in for a moment. Here was Bobby Bowden, a literal living legend even then, telling me, a little radio announcer from Thomas County, that it was HIS pleasure to talk to ME. 

But that was the very essence of Bobby Bowden encapsulated in one moment. He never met a human being that he didn’t consider a friend. 

Bobby Bowden was a good Christian man who talked a great talk and walked an even greater walk who happened to be one of the best college football coaches to ever live. He was what he was in every situation on the field and off, and that’s what set him apart. His is a near extinct breed in this day and age.  

When I heard of his passing last week, I couldn’t help but smile with the mental image of him arriving at the pearly gates, looking around, and saying through that Bobby Bowden grin: 

“Well…I’ll be dadgummed.”