Former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden dies at 91

(Image credit: A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

published 8 August 2021

Former Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden has died, the school announced Sunday morning. He was 91. Bowden was diagnosed with a terminal medical condition, later revealed by his son Terry to be pancreatic cancer, in July.

Bowden took over at Florida State in 1976 after a six-year stint at West Virginia, and he remained there until 2009 when he retired. Along the way, he picked up the second most career wins of any Division I head coach (behind only Penn State's Joe Paterno), two consensus national championships, 12 conference titles, and 28 consecutive bowl appearances from 1982 until Bowden's retirement.

Jim Phillips, the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, called Bowden "one of the most successful, humble, and endearing individuals who was also one of the most decorated college football coaches in history." Florida State's president John Thrasher also released a statement, noting that Bowden "built a football dynasty and raised the national profile of Florida State University, and he did it with class and a sense of humor." Read more at ESPN.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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