Winning's Only Part of the Game: Lessons of Life and Football - Hardcover

Bowden, Bobby; Bowden, Terry; Bowden Family; Brown, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446520500 ISBN 13: 9780446520508

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1996

Synopsis

The Bowdens are the First Family of college football. Bobby, the father, built the winningest program of the decade at Florida State. Son Terry took over an Auburn team on probation and led it back into the top tier of the sport. Son Tommy is Auburn's offensive coordinator and will likely get his own program in the next few seasons. Son Jeff, now coaching Florida State receivers, will earn his own head coaching opportunity one day. So will the boys' brother-in-law Jack Hines - who played for Bobby, married his oldest daughter, Robyn, and now coaches with Terry at Auburn. Reading this book is like accepting an exclusive invitation to a Bowden family gathering, where discussions range from informal debates about the best winning strategy to disarmingly candid appraisals of the racial undercurrents of college athletics. Listen to inside stories of key moments in Games of the Century, of the recruiting and coaching of famous athletes such as Deion Sanders and Charlie Ward. Hear how it feels to be trapped inside a locker room with angry fans pounding on the door, to be the son of a coach hanged in effigy, to have to choose between the interests of a troubled young athlete and the image of a football program. Learn, with the Bowdens, the lessons of careers measured in clock ticks and place-kicks.

About this title

Reviews

Bowden family values rule in this curious mixture of football and inspirational philosophies. For those familiar with big-time college football, the Bowden name is synonymous with winning. Bobby, the close-knit clan's partiarch, is coach of the Florida State University Seminoles, a one-time NCAA champion and perennial powerhouse. Bobby and his wife, Ann, have six childrens--two girls and four boys--five of whom have, in one capacity or another, followed their father into football (eldest son Steve remains the holdout--he is a minister/educator). Less well-known, however, is that the Bowdens are devout evangelical Protestants. This book takes the form of a kind of dinner table discussion about life, kids, faith, love, leadership, loyalty, competition, and gender issues, conveniently couched in the lexicon and contexts of the occasionally inconsistent realms of gridiron life and individual salvation. Scattered among the scores of platitudes (``Most of the time when you lose, it's because the other team is a little better than you. . . . The key, I think, is to make sure you take something away from those losses'') are some genuinely perceptive thoughts, many provided by Steve, who gently opposes Dad's fundamentalist point of view. Wife Ann describes Bobby, her husband of 47 years, as a man of unshakable faith who ``accepts the Bible as the Word of God.'' This and other highly personal insights the Bowdens share about one another should intrigue football fans who associate Bobby's Seminoles or Terry's Auburn Tigers (or, for the record, most other successful football programs) with the frequent misdeeds of some of their players. To be fair, all the Bowdens seem comfortable, sincere, and mostly nonjudgmental in their faith. However, with their highly successful personal and professional lives, they seem at times to be a bit out of touch with other aspects of life. Surefire inspiration for those who are inspired by the Bowdens; not much of anything for anyone else. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The Bowdens are the Kennedys of college football--minus the tragedies. Bobby is the successful head coach at Florida State, and his son Terry revived the once-disgraced Auburn program. Son Tommy is an assistant at Auburn, and son Jeff is on Bobby's FSU staff. Another son is an ordained minister, and two daughters are a teacher and a lawyer, respectively. In this uniquely organized round-table discussion, the whole group reflect on their lives and how being the children of a coach has shaped their destinies. The coaching Bowdens examine football issues such as recruiting and strategy, but the real insights are generated by the noncoaches. Steve, the minister, and Ginger, the lawyer, offer observations that force the coaches to re-examine their priorities. Terry, for example, realizes he's obsessed with success and questions the values of his goals. This is an absolutely fascinating book, football aside. To eavesdrop on a large family of articulate adults as they evaluate their childhood and their relationships with the outside world proves remarkably rewarding. Wes Lukowsky

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446520500
• ISBN 13: 9780446520508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256