Bobby Bowden
I was always going to church with my mom, dad and sister. I was literally raised under the godly influence both at home and church. There was no alcohol and no smoking at our house. That was the way a Bowden was supposed to live. My dad always told me to represent the Bowden name in a respectful manner.Collection: Dad
To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach.Collection: New
There's a saying in my business that there are two kinds of coaches - those who have been fired and those who haven't been fired yet. That's kind of like prostate cancer. Every man will have it if he lives long enough.Collection: Business
If somebody mistreats you, treat 'em good. That kills 'em.
He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, but then again he doesn't know the meaning of most words.
People that are brilliant and successful, we think they've just always been that way. That's not the case. Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life. It's prepared them. I've never felt like you could develop character without adversity.
You can live by biblical principles, and you can teach by those principles and still be a winner. So many coaches think you've got to kick your players in the rear end. You've got to cuss them out. You've got to hit them across the head. No. You don't have to do that.
The thing that drives most coaches out of coaching in college is they get tired of the grind of recruiting.
He who gets the best players usually wins.
A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better.
Even though I retired from coaching, I still believe that is my calling.
A boy needs a male figure, and the girls do, too. Somebody to discipline them and make them be a man.
Don't go to the grave with life unused.
I guess I'll retire someday if I live that long.
Do I think God is going to win football games? Oh no. I never prayed to God to help us win a game. I would pray for the safety of the players. I would pray that they would do their best. I think God will answer that.
I won't miss coaching. What you miss is that camaraderie with those boys and the other coaches. You miss that.
Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.
I've never made football my priority. My priorities are my faith and my dependence on God.
All my life, I've been right next to a football field. I never knew nothing else.
The Bible is big in my teaching. It's a wonder the ACLU didn't get after me pretty good. I really kept thinking they would. I took my boys to church. I took my football team to church. I only did it two times a year. Before I signed a kid, I'd write the parents and I'd tell that parent we were gong to take your son to church twice.
A guy's who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won't have any character. But when you've had it tough and you've had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that's the way you build character.
Football has always been a big part of my life. Almost from the day I was born, playing and coaching football were all I really ever wanted to do.
I really believe God called on me to coach, and that is the reason I stayed in it for so long.
During my last days at Florida State, 65 to 70 percent of my boys did not have a daddy at home. They're raised by mommas. Thank God for them mommas, or grandmommas. Or big sister or aunt.
The heck with political correctness. I've never believed in it.
That boy don't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades, and that boy don't know the meaning of a lot of words.Collection: Football
The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.Collection: Mistake
Discipline to me is sacrifice; it's willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.Collection: Giving Up
I'm not too proud to change. I like to win too much.Collection: Winning
If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the national championship every year.Collection: Football
I learned a long time ago that you don't have to go around using bad language and trying to hurt people to show how macho you are. That stuff won't get you anywhere, it just shows lack of vocabulary and character.Collection: Hurt
Integrity makes my job easier. It's deception and dishonesty that requires so much diligent effort.Collection: Jobs
Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.Collection: Football
As good as we were, we didn’t win a National Championship until 1993, mainly because we kept losing to Miami on missed kicks. I used to get mad because nobody else would play Miami. Notre Dame would play them, then drop them. Florida dropped them. Penn State dropped them. We would play Miami and lose by one point on a missed field goal, and it would knock us out of the National Championship. I didn’t want to play them, either, but I had to play them. That’s why I said, 'When I die, They’ll say, ‘At least he played Miami.'Collection: Winning
When I go after something, I go after it hard. It has always been that way. I don't know. It's in my blood.Collection: Blood
If somebody mistreats you, treat’em good. That kills’em.Collection: Sports
I learned more from the mistakes than from the good things.Collection: Monday
Courage is doing something you need to do that might get you hurt.Collection: Hurt
There's only about 6 inches that turns that halo into a noose.Collection: Nfl
Sportsmanship to me is going out and playing as hard as you can within the rules.Collection: Sportsmanship
If their IQ's where five points lower they'd be geraniums.Collection: Five
After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that.Collection: Football
I’m praying for a misdemeanorCollection: Praying
I am not happy with moral victories. Those things are forgotten.Collection: Nfl
Somehow, I went from being too young, to being too old. Somewhere in there I must have been just right.Collection: Nfl
He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere, or I'm afraid I'd wilt on the vine, too.Collection: Jobs
Something has to happen that you can't coach.Collection: Nfl
I've always said it takes more courage to stand back there and throw a ball knowing you're fixing to get drilled than anything I can think of in football.Collection: Football
I suppose I'm like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question.Collection: Sidelines