Former Florida State University (FSU) head coach and Alabama-native Bobby Bowden unashamedly professed his faith in Jesus Christ to nearly 10,000 people attending morning services at Idlewild Baptist Church, Lutz, Fla., on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 7.
Bowden, whose 377 Division I wins rank second all-time, gave the Tampa-area Idlewild congregation the same advice he gave his assistant coaches at FSU upon his retirement after the Gator Bowl in January: Never be afraid to speak out for Christ.
While Bowden “walked the aisle” and joined the church as a young boy, it wasn’t until he held his first assistant coaching position at his alma mater, Howard University (now Samford University) in Birmingham, that he understood salvation is by God’s grace alone.
He remembered a ministry student at Samford explaining to him that heaven is a place for sinners who have been saved.
Before then, Bowden mistakenly thought good people went to heaven and bad people went to hell.
But at that point he understood that individuals are saved by grace, through faith and trust in Christ alone.
He said he realized what Jesus meant in Matthew 9:12 when He said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
“Darn right, I’m a sinner! I haven’t shot anybody lately. I haven’t stolen anything lately. But you think things you shouldn’t think and you say things you shouldn’t say,” Bowden said.
Citing Psalm 8:5 and Hebrews 2:7, he said God created everyone with a purpose, and their job on earth is to find that purpose and live it out.
“God says, ‘I made you a little lower than the angels.’ Evolution says, ‘You are a little higher than an ape.’ I’ll take the angel part,” Bowden chuckled.
He believes influencing young men for Christ through coaching has been God’s purpose for his life, and he wants to be remembered most as a man who served that purpose well.
At the age of 13, Bowden suffered from rheumatic fever and was bedridden for nearly a year. Doctors told him his life as an athlete was over.
He asked God to heal him and allow him to grow up to coach other athletes, promising he would share Jesus with others through his coaching opportunities.
Bowden said his career — which spanned six different coaching positions over 57 years including more than three years as head coach at Samford — was orchestrated by God.
Noting he did not plan out his career and never applied for any of the coaching positions he held, Bowden said, “I have to think it was God’s will. It was God leading me.
“All I have tried to do is to make myself available to God,” he said.
Daily Bible study is an important part of Bowden’s life.
He and Ann, his wife of 60 years, meet together each morning to study God’s Word.
Bowden enjoys reading the Bible through like a novel, from the front cover to the back, noting that it wouldn’t make much sense to pick up “War and Peace,” flip it open randomly and read a few paragraphs here and there.
Likewise, Bowden said it’s important to read the Bible from start to finish.
Currently reading the Bible through for the third time, he said he learns new things each time he reads it.
And as far as his thoughts on heaven, he said a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the answer to the question of why anyone will get to heaven.
“That’s the answer to the exam. When we stand before the pearly gates, I done gave you the answer,” he said.
Bowden, 81, said the idea of death does not intimidate him.
“One day, I will die. I ain’t scared, by the way. When I die, I will live again,” Bowden said. (BP)
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