Dabo Swinney shares touching final moment with Bobby Bowden

Dabo Swinney landed at Clemson thanks to the son of Bobby Bowden. Tommy Bowden hired Swinney as his wide receivers coach at Clemson in 2003. Swinney quickly proved his worth as the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator, too.

Tommy Bowden resigned from his post as head coach at Clemson midway through the 2008 season. The Tigers appointed Swinney as interim head coach for the rest of the season and he eventually was named the school’s 27th head coach.

Swinney shared his memories of Bobby Bowden on Monday afternoon during his media availability. The college football coaching legend died Sunday at the age of 91. Swinney talked to Bowden on the phone a couple weeks ago and asked the former Florida State coach a favor.

“If you get to heaven before me, I’d appreciate a little help getting the ball through the uprights on occasion,” Swinney asked him.

“I was never too good at that,” Bowden responded. “They had a tendency to go wide.”

Bobby Bowden on his legacy

In 2009, Mike Freeman wrote BOWDEN – How Bobby Bowden Forged a College Football Dynasty. In it, Bobby Bowden detailed how we wanted to be remembered. 

“A lot of people in the past have asked me what about my legacy,” Bowden shared with Freeman.  “I’ve said this and that and I don’t like talking about it all that much, but I answer the question the best I can.  I want people to say, ‘He was one of the best.’ Not the best.  Just one of the best.  I want people to say I didn’t cheat.  We made some mistakes here, but I never had a win-at-all-costs mentality.  We had that dadgum Free Shoes University thing, but we didn’t know what the players were doing and anyone who says we did isn’t telling the truth.  I would’ve rather lost than be seen as a guy who won and cheated.  I guess I want my legacy to be we won and we mostly won the right way, and along the way, people had fun, and I treated people with respect and decency.  I was something Florida State could be proud of.  They’d say, ‘That dadgum Bowden was a good guy.’  That’s how I hope I’ll be remembered.”

Bobby Bowden resume is unrivaled in Tallahassee

Bobby Bowden amassed a 315-98-4 record during his 34-year tenure in Tallahassee. When he took over at Florida State, the team had gone 4-29 in its previous three seasons. By his second year, they won 10 games. Over the next 14 years leading up to FSU’s ACC debut, they won at least nine games nine times. When they joined their new conference, then-ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan commented how valuable they had become in the college football world.

“Their football team had more national television exposure last year than all our teams had together,” Corrigan said. 

Not only did he turn the Seminoles into a competitive program, he twice reached the pinnacle of college football, winning national titles in 1993 and 1999. Bobby Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 before retiring in 2009.

On3.com’s Jamie Oakes and Ashton Pollard contributed to this report