Why is it important to be a good leader during this time? Because quality leadership endures beyond the time you have.
My husband had the privilege of playing football under the leadership of legendary Coach Bobby Bowden. Twenty years after graduating from college, people still ask him what it was like to be coached by the best. Despite grueling 6 am mat drills and two-a-days in the August humidity, football was the best experience and is the fondest memory. Coach Bowden created a culture of excellence by valuing people. He found success on the field because he cared for his players off the field.
His secret was endearing moms to himself. He sat in living rooms across the country and worked harder to recruit mamas than he did athletes. Bobby knew the influence moms had, so he went straight to the source. When their sons would inevitably play for Florida State, his charismatic personality made every mom believe she was his favorite.
Once at Florida State, these young men discovered why it is important to be a good leader during his time. Coach Bowden coached with integrity and valued character. Every year, he made the entire team visit a church where most members were white and a church where most members were people of color to bridge the racial divide and show how we all have equal value. He won more football games in his career than most coaches will ever dream of, so he pushed his athletes to be competitors and win. Yet, he knew true success came from winning off the field.
Coach Bowden is universally beloved, except by University of Florida fans, I imagine. His unassuming demeanor and welcoming spirit made people love him. He loved his wife well and was an incredible family man even with a crazy schedule. He is one of those rare men who make it all look so easy.
Coaching thousands of men throughout his career, coming from various backgrounds and situations, is no easy task, of course. He made every player feel important and like they were the only person who mattered when he spoke to them.
He made every player feel important and like they were the only person who mattered when he spoke to them.
My husband loved playing under Bobby’s leadership because he created a culture of high expectation and high value. People continued to matter the most to him. Sure, winning championships and collecting rings and trophies make him a legend. But his legendary coaching is defined by being a good leader during his time when other coaches caused scandals with poor decisions.
As the head coach of Florida State University, Coach Bowden only had one losing season: his first one. My dad was actually a student at Florida State right before Bowden came, and he has the most hilarious stories of how terrible that team was. Bobby took over a renegade group of young men and turned the program into one of the most successful to ever play the game. He is the first coach to take a team wire-to-wire to the National Championship, meaning the Seminoles were ranked #1 to begin the season, never dropped out of that top ranking, and won the National Championship that year against Virginia Tech. My husband happened to play on that team, and it remains one of the coolest moments of his life.
To know Bobby is to love Bobby. Even outside of the football program, students adored him. He would speak at events and endear himself to everyone. No one could resist his southern charm and humble attitude.
Of course Coach Bowden goes down in history as one of the best to ever coach the game of football, but he goes down in history as one of the most beloved coaches to ever do it. He passed on his coaching style, and many of his former players are continuing his legacy by coaching young people across the country.
Bobby: A Good Leader
It remains so important to be a good leader during this time that many former Seminoles invest in the next generation by coaching Pop Warner teams, high school teams, and beyond. Coach Bowden’s influence is passed down as they lead with humility and value people above the game.
My husband took his high school football team to a National Championship this year and won. He enjoyed watching his high school team win more than winning a collegiate one himself because he has learned that quality coaching elevates others above yourself. Coach Bowden taught that well.
It was a great privilege to play under Coach Bowden. His impact will far outlive him because he knew what mattered most and cared for people well. He made mamas feel like the most valuable people in the stadium and kept true to his promise to take care of their precious boys.
Bobby sadly passed away last year, after a long, well lived life. His funeral was held at a huge civic center because of the amount of people he impacted during his lifetime. Athletes, their families, alumni, students, and of course his family all filled the seats of a massive auditorium to pay their respects to a man who earned their respect.
His leadership, coaching style, southern accent, and impact continues to live on through the thousands of young men he coached and the many more fans who cheer on the Seminoles. They are proud of the culture he created. No wonder people ask about him decades later. His leadership went above and beyond, and he will forever be remembered as someone who was a good leader during his time.