No one wanted to see the Bowden years end this way

Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177


No one wanted to see the Bowden years end this way
Posted 12/3/2009 10:40 AM EST on tallahassee.com

I’ve listened as the national commentators have berated Florida State University for how it has handled Bobby Bowden’s retirement, and I've grown more angry each day. One of my favorite guys, ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who I think of as almost like being my Italian uncle, was the worst.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said in his typical high-pitched voice. “What they did to him is embarrassing.”

Then he went off on Jimbo Fisher, saying he has been right there with Coach Bowden as the program declined.

“What makes him the answer to their problems?” Vitale asked.

I have watched as an outsider who has a front-row seat to what has happened with the FSU football program for the past five years. Just factually, the decline was well under way before Fisher got here. But that is beside the point. In fact, I was totally lost on his point, unless someone was suggesting Coach Bowden’s retirement was Fisher’s fault. But who would say that?

The people who live and work here, who know and love FSU, who depend on it in one way or another for how they earn their livings, educate their children or just for being so important to the fabric of daily life, are brokenhearted about how Bowden’s career ended.

No one has been more affected than FSU President T.K. Wetherell, a former player under Coach Bowden when Bowden coached receivers in the 1960s. Wetherell, who has already announced his own retirement, is the man who had to tell Coach it was over.

People close to Wetherell told me they were concerned about how the stress of dealing with this was affecting his health. No one wants to tell Dad or Mom they can’t drive anymore, but sometimes you just have to. It sure doesn’t mean you’ve stopped loving them.

People here do love Coach, not just for what he has done on the field, but for who he is and what he has meant to our community.

Here is a story that illustrates my point, based on an e-mail today from Mike Olivella, who moved into his home two doors down from the Bowdens in 1995.

“Our son was 14 years old at the time, and very early the next morning (Sunday), as my wife and I slept, our son crawled out of bed, put on his rollerblades and skated over to Bowden's house.

“He knocked on the door holding a baseball cap and Coach opened the door, barefoot, dressed in boxer shorts and a white T-shirt. He looked down and said, ‘Can I help you, son?’

“Mikey replied that we had just moved in a couple of doors down. ‘Those things you're wearing look fast,’ Bowden said. Mikey told him they were.

“ ‘You want that hat signed?’ asked Coach.

“ ‘Yes, sir. It's for my girlfriend back home. Her name is Kate,' said Mikey.

“ ‘Well, let's see if we can't do that for her,’ as he took the hat, signed it and then handed it back. ‘Now you be careful on those things,' said Coach as he shook Mikey's hand and smiled. “He turned, went back inside his home.”

Make no mistake that this episode of FSU history has been gut-wrenching for many thousands of us who have simply watched it being played out.

It really didn’t have to end this way, but I think a comment made last night during the FSU men’s basketball game by announcer John Saunders – another of my favorites – provides some insight.

“I know Coach Bowden wanted one more year, and I know that because I know his son, Terry, pretty well,” Saunders said.

Bingo, I said. That explains a lot.

In recent months, another group of people who feel they have done a lot for FSU over the years, the alumni who have contributed huge amounts of money, have grown more and more restless and vocal about how they have been portrayed as “ungrateful” by members of the Bowden family and their friends.

Along with empty seats in a stadium that simply rocked with excitement a few years ago and what appeared to be a growingly dysfunctional coaching staff, the alumni and boosters were simply tired of the whispers and the very public accusations of disloyalty.

No one who gives hundreds of dollars, let alone thousands and millions, wants to be called ungrateful.

And they were starting to speak up about it.

One such meeting with Wetherell and alumni and supporters occurred last weekend. I’m sure Wetherell knew what he was going to say to Coach before that meeting, but the message – I’m told – was clear: The end had come.

And so it has, and as with most public breakups of a family, it has been terribly sad for this community.

Maybe it has been embarrassing, too, Dickey V., but not for the reasons you suggest.

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