Terry
Bowden has made the same dramatic entrance
into the broadcasting industry as he
did as a head coach in college football.
He has quickly become one of the top
television and radio analysts in college
football while captivating audiences
all over the country.
Although Terry Bowden's bright future
is firmly planted in broadcasting, it
all began walking the sidelines as a
head football coach. Looking back to
those years tells you two things about
Terry - number one, he's a winner; and
number two, don't ever underestimate
him.
As a college football coach, Bowden was
enormously successful, compiling a 15
year record of 111-53-2 and an impressive
winning percentage of 68%. As head coach
of the Auburn Tigers, he won 73% of his
games and posted the best opening five-year
run of any head football coach in school
history. Prior to becoming head football
coach at Auburn, Bowden built two programs
from the ground up as head coach at Salem
College and Samford University. As the
nation's youngest head coach at age 26,
it didn't take long for winning to become
Terry Bowden's trademark. At Salem, he
inherited a football program which had
gone 0-9-1 the year before he arrived,
but he quickly turned them into a winner.
Salem won the WVIA Conference Championship,
its second in 80 years, in Bowden's second
season. It was the first of two straight
championships for Bowden and Salem. He
won 19 of his last 25 games, led the
nation in offense both years and played
in the NAIA national playoffs both years.
He was an assistant coach at Akron for
former Notre Dame head coach Gerry Faust
in 1986 before taking the helm at Samford
in 1987. Inheriting a Samford program
which had won just six games in three
years prior to his arrival, Samford was
9-1 his first year, tying the record
for the best season in school history.
The Bulldogs led the nation in total
offense (523 ypg) and scoring offense
(51.7 ppg), both national Division III
records. The team's 40 touchdown passes
were also a national season record, but
that was only the beginning for Samford
and for Terry Bowden. Bowden engineered
and directed Samford's move from Division
III non-scholarship football to Division
I-AA scholarship football.
With only one freshman class on scholarship,
the Bulldogs went to a full Division
I-AA schedule in 1989. By 1991, Samford
was competing for the national championship.
The 1991 Samford team had the best record
in school history, 12-2, and made the
Division I-AA national semifinals. The
Bowden magic was working again. Playing
in the shadow of Auburn, Alabama and
the Southeastern Conference, Bowden had
developed the Samford program into one
of the nation's strongest, most competitive
Division I-AA programs. In five years,
Samford had successfully made the difficult
transition from non-scholarship football
to scholarship football, and was competing
for titles.
For Terry Bowden, the next step was inevitable.
It came on Dec. 17, 1992 when he was
named head coach at Auburn. Auburn president
Dr. William V. Muse called Bowden the
perfect choice to lead Auburn Football
into the 21st Century. Terry Bowden's
first bio as head football coach at Auburn
began:
"At 36, Terry Bowden, one of the
youngest coaches in Division I-A football,
is poised on the threshold of greatness…"
No one knew how close greatness was.
Yet, five months after that first bio
was written, Terry Bowden had accomplished
a feat that no other Division IA coach
had ever accomplished. He had gone undefeated
and untied in his first year as a Division
IA head coach, a perfect 11-0. Bowden
swept virtually every national coach
of the year award in his rookie season
including Walter Camp, Scripps Howard,
Football News, Toyota and the Paul "Bear" Bryant
Award presented by the Football Writers
Association.
He was again a finalist following his
second season at Auburn. By the end of
his second season on the Plains, the
Tigers had reeled off 20 straight wins,
an Auburn record. Also during his helm
at Auburn, Bowden became the first college
coach in 50 years to win his 100th career
game by his 40th birthday. As a student-athlete
at West Virginia University, he lettered
two years as a running back (1977-78),
held a 3.65 GPA in accounting, the highest
GPA on the football team, and graduated
Magna Cum Laude. He did post graduate
work at Oxford University in England,
and earned a Juris Doctorate degree from
the Florida State University School of
Law in 1982 while a graduate assistant
coach at FSU.
He was born into the most famous and
successful college football family. His
father, Bobby Bowden, turned Florida
State into a national champion and is
currently the winningest coach in division
1A history. His brother Tommy is the
head coach at Clemson, and brother Jeff
is the offensive coordinator at Florida
State. During the decade of the 1990’s,
all three Bowden head coaches led their
teams to undefeated seasons - a feat
that will likely never be repeated. Terry
Bowden certainly did his part to add
luster and glory to the first family
of college football. In 1998, Bowden
left his stellar coaching career behind
and made the exciting move into broadcasting.
Terry Bowden has been ultra-successful
as a student, an athlete, and a college
football coach. He is a much sought after
motivational speaker. The qualities that
have made him successful throughout his
life - enthusiasm, contagious optimism,
confidence and work ethic - are the same
qualities that he now relies on as a
television and radio analyst for college
football.
He can be heard daily in central Florida
hosting The Terry Bowden Show on ESPN
Radio, weekly on “
The Coach’s Show” on Sirius
Satellite Radio, weekly during football
season as the Color Analyst for Westwood
One’s College Football Game of
the week, and his articles can be read
as the expert football analyst for YahooSports.com.