The Good Ole’ Boy is retiring in his 80th year, and all of college football mourns its loss.

Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday afternoon that he would retire – period – after Florida State’s presumed appearance in the Gator Bowl, ending a 34-year career in Tallahassee during which he resurrected a football program into winning two national championships and having a better standing than most of the big-box teams. And they include Florida, Miami, Texas, Southern California, L.S.U., Nebraska and Penn State. 

“I now have got to look for a job,” Bowden said with gallows humor Tuesday. ”I haven’t had to look for a job in 35 years.”

Bowden’s conditional retirement plan left open his chance to win at least one more game to narrow his gap with Joe Paterno, now major college football’s winningest coach approaching his 82nd birthday on Dec. 21.  Paterno now leads in victories, 393 to 388.

But Paterno insisted on Aug. 26 that he did not care about his race with Bowden for most victories.  “When they bury me, they're going to put on my gravestone, ‘You were one win ahead of Bobby Bowden?’ ” Paterno said.

 Since they last met in a game, a triple-overtime 26-23 Penn State win in the 2006 Orange Bowl, Paterno is 40-12 and Bowden is 29-23. . Bowden entered  that game with 359 career victories. Paterno had 353.  

And that 11-win disparity led to the restlessness in Tallahassee which opened the exit door in midseason for Bowden in an inglorious way for a Hall of Fame coach. Florida State on Monday offered Bowden a chance to be an ambassador for football in the shadow of his successor, Jimbo Fisher.  Under the plan, Bowden would still be a fund raiser and a booster good ole’ boy, but the X’s and O’s would be outsourced.  Either Bowden did not want such humiliation or he did not want to share the sideline with his successor.  It is the second biggest secret in Florida northwest of Tiger Woods’s.

But Bowden has a month to think about it.  Who knows whether or not Paterno has quietly assumed such an ambassadorial role since the administration knocked on his front door the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2004?  The blue suits were not there to give thanks.  They wanted Joe to retire.  But he scowled at them, telling them  to hold on, that he was recruiting some of the finest high school prospects in the nation and that his assistants were loyal.  He assured them that Penn State would be back.  And they have been with a 50-13 record since his door shut on the administrators’ exit strategy.

Bowden should think it over and become the ambassador.

His is a face on college football that few of the big-name brand  teams have. Alabama had  Bear Bryant and then lost a face for decades. Penn State has Paterno, Southern Cal has Pete Carroll, Florida has Urban Meyer, Alabama  now has Nick Saban, Texas has Mack Brown.  That is only five solid brand names among the 120 major college programs. The other 115 programs do not have as solid a face on their product. That’s why Florida State needs Bowden’s face until its ashen. Nor do they have the stability Bowden gives Florida State and Paterno gives Penn State. 

Look at Notre Dame for an unstable brand name.  

If the Gator Bowl could get it right, it would lobby for a rematch between the two oldest major college coaches: Bowden vs. Paterno, one last time on active duty  for the Good Ole’ Boy.  Regrettably the Yankee Stadium promoters of college football did not venture a matchup between the legends. Imagine: Bowden vs. Paterno at the house Joe helped fill as a lad living in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

"Bobby has been a tough competitor," Paterno said in a statement Tuesday. "He has meant an awful lot to the universities he coached and to the game of football over all. He and his wife, Ann, have dedicated their lives with untold hours to better the teams and universities they cared so much about. They will be missed by the coaching profession and college football. Sue and I wish them well."

That echoed the mutual admiration Paterno and  Bowden expressed  the last five seasons. They and their wives  have known each other for more than 40 years.  They coached against each other annually when Penn State and West Virginia brawled, a series Paterno dominated, 6-0, from 1972-77.  They split two Florida State-Penn State games, leaving Paterno 7-1 against Bowden. Here’s a sample of their comments:

Dec. 4, 2005
Joe Paterno at Fed Ex Orange Bowl Press Teleconference 

"Bobby and I are good friends and have been friends for a long, long time. His wife, Ann, and my wife, Sue, are good friends."


"Bobby Bowden is one of the great coaches, if not the greatest that's ever coached. He's done a superb job ... Bobby's been a friend. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bobby."  
   
"Florida State is one heckuva tradition, one heckuva coaching staff. Bobby Bowden is a great coach "  

"I hope it doesn't come down to where it's Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno because he can't run, and I run slower. I hope it comes down to Penn State and Florida State, and people get away from the idea that this has got to be a matchup between two old guys that have had a lot of fun coaching."


"All of a sudden Florida State isn't a great game? Florida State has one heckuva tradition, one heckuva coaching staff, and Bobby is one of the great coaches, if not the greatest, that's ever coached."  


Dec. 4, 2005
Bobby Bowden at Fed Ex Orange Bowl Press Teleconference 

"We need to get across more than Bobby vs. Joe. It's Penn State vs. Florida State. But we know it (coaches' comparison) is going to be hard to rule out."

 
"Joe Paterno, to me, is maybe the greatest coach ever in my opinion. I mean that truly, and I said that 10 years ago."

 
Bowden pointed to Paterno's turnaround of the 2005 Nittany Lions, after four losing seasons since 1999, as an inspiration.

 
"It accentuates my feeling that nobody's going to win forever," he said. "You can have a bad year, a bad series of years, a bad cycle."  


Nov. 15, 2006
When an injured Paterno missed the Hall of Fame induction of both coaches in 2006 

“Being honored with my good friend Bobby Bowden and receiving the highest honor of this special organization means a great deal to me. I was looking forward to being in New York and spending time with Bobby, his wife, Ann, and their kids, Sue and our kids. I know that December 5 will be a special evening and we’ll look forward to sharing in that next year.”

Oct. 8, 2009
Paterno on his weekly radio show 

"I don't know what's going on, put it that way, but I certainly think Bobby, being what he's done, and the kind of person he's been, he certainly deserves ... he ought to be able to decide what he wants to do now. I don't know what he wants to do, and I don't know what [Florida State] wants to do. Nobody calls me up, and if they call me up, I say, 'Hey, no comment." 

"I've tried not in anyway to even learn what's going on. There are personalities that are conflicting obviously as to what should happen." 

July 13, 2009
Paterno to the Reading (Pa.) Eagle on the N.C.A.A. plan to strip Bowden of victories  

"The N.C.A.A. is going to do what it's going to do, but I would hope they would not take away 10 or 12 wins away from him," Paterno told . "I don't think that's fair. He coached the team he had; they played against people, and they won. They ought to be wins for them."   


"I've known Bobby for 40 years. Sue and I have gone on a lot of trips with Bobby and his wife, Ann. I think Bobby is not filled up with himself. He's my kind of guy. He doesn't go around blowing his horn." 

"He's very humble and a very, very religious guy. He's very, very principled. He's not preaching. He's not trying to convert people. He's just a good person and a heck of a football coach."    
 
 


Aug. 26, 2008
Paterno at his weekly press conference  

Q. Florida State is off this week, so you could possibly tie Bobby Bowden for the wins record this year.  I know you said you don't look at the record, but do you enjoy a friendly competition with Bobby with that in terms of the career wins and all of that?

A. Bobby's a good friend. Oh, who cares?  When they bury me they're going to put on my gravestone, “You were one win ahead of Bobby Bowden?”  No.  That's good for you guys. You need something to write about, obviously.

No, I really don't know.  I couldn't tell you that. And I don't think Bobby would feel any differently than I do. We've sent spent a lot of time together through the years, Bobby and his wife, Ann.  We've gone on a lot of trips with the Nike coaches.  And Terry, who coached Auburn for a while.  Was Terry at Auburn?  I get them kind of twisted around a little.  But they were both … they're good.

Hey, Bobby Bowden's a great credit to the game, everywhere he's coached.  If he comes out with more wins than I do, then we both have it, I'm glad it's him. 

Oct. 10, 2009
Paterno at his weekly press conference 

Q. Bobby Bowden has come under fire at Florida State in the past couple days. It appears he might not be able to go out on his own terms. Do you have any reaction to what's going on down there? 

 A. I don't know what's going on, so it would be foolish of me to discuss it. 

Q. Referring to an earlier question, the chairman of the Florida State Board of Trustees yesterday said he wants Bobby Bowden to retire. You said you weren't aware of that. That was the news coming out of there. What's your reaction to that?

A. I have no reaction because I don't know what's going on. I'm sitting in the office this morning at a meeting, and I said, “Hey, I got to get out of here. I’ve got make a telephone call. “ It was something I had to do about a couple things, recruiting and other things.

So I said, “I’ve got to get out of here, plus I got the press conference.” Somebody said, “Well, you better be ready to answer some questions about Bobby Bowden.” I said, “What's going on?” He said, “Well, there's some pressure on Bobby.” I said, “Well, what I don't know I can't talk about. “

"So I didn't ask him any questions. I don't know what to tell you."

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