HEAD
COACH TERRY BOWDEN
Following a five-year run on the Auburn record books, Terry Bowden
has begun his assault on the national coaching ledgers.
While posting the best opening five-year run of any head football
coach in Auburn history, Bowden also became the first college
coach in 40 years to win his 100th career game as a 40-year-old.
Bowden has gone 46-12-1 during his first five seasons at Auburn,
tying him with Oklahoma's Bud Wilkinson (1947-51), Tennessee's
Bill Battle (1970-74) and Nebraska's Tom Osborne (1973-77) for
the seventh-best first five-year win total in the history of I-A
football.
Obviously, Bowden also compares favorably with past Auburn coaching
greats. "Iron" Mike Donahue was 19-12-1 in his first five years
at Auburn before finishing an 18-year career with 99 wins. Pat
Dye, who also won 99 games in 12 years on The Plains, was 42-18
from his first year, 1981, through the 1985 season. Auburn's all-time
winningest coach, Ralph "Shug" Jordan, was 30-21-2 in his first
five seasons before going on to win 176 games in 25 years.
In just five short seasons, Bowden's Auburn teams have already
re-written Auburn football history by becoming the first Tiger
team to finish a season 11-0, and that was just for starters.
As the 1994 season wound toward conclusion the Tigers had reeled
off 20 straight wins, also an Auburn record.
No other coach in NCAA Division I-A history had ever gone undefeated
and untied in his first season and none had started their career
by going 20-1-1. In 1995, Bowden guided the Tigers to their first
bowl bid since 1990 while setting Auburn records for yards and
points per game, as well as leading the Southeastern Conference
in rushing.
Last year, Bowden showed that Auburn could be successful with
a passing attack that allowed quarterback Dameyune Craig to set
a number of school records while leading the Tigers to a 10-win
season and their first SEC Championship Game appearance.
Bowden, 42, is still viewed by some as a newcomer in the college
football coaching circles. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the 1998 season will be Bowden's 15th as a collegiate
head coach. The 1996 Independence Bowl brought career win No.
100, and he has averaged nearly eight wins per season during his
previous 14 years.
To fully appreciate what averaging nearly eight wins per year
means, one would have to take a look at Bowden's assignments previous
to Auburn. At both Salem College in West Virginia and at Samford
University in Birmingham he was hired to build programs from the
ground floor.
At Salem, he inherited a football program which had gone 0-9-1
the year before, but he won. 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
18 of his last 24 games, led the nation in offense both years
and played in the NAIA national playoffs both years. Winning had
become a Terry Bowden trademark.
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 37, 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 I-A 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.
When he was named head coach at Auburn, Bowden said he came to
Auburn "not to take Auburn Football where it has never been before,
but to take it there again, and keep it there longer than ever
before..."
Bowden has done that with enthusiasm, contagious optimism, confidence
and a belief that there is no substitute for hard work and preparation.
But often overshadowed by the enthusiasm and confidence is an
optimum understanding of the game.
Bowden has all of the assets and capabilities necessary to be
a successful coach. He has been ultra successful as a student
and as a student-athlete. He has excelled in the classroom and
on the field of athletic competition, important, even necessary,
characteristics for a coach of this generation.
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 studied at Oxford University in England in the summer of 1980,
and earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the Florida State University
School of Law in 1982 while a graduate assistant coach at FSU.
Having prepared himself to succeed in the business and professional
world, Bowden was free to follow his first love and the burning
ambition of his life „ coaching.
In a real sense, football „ winning football „ is all Terry Bowden
has ever known. He was born into one of the South's most famous
and successful football families. He is one of five Division I-A
coaches in the Bowden family. His father, Bobby Bowden, has turned
Florida State into a national champion, his brother Tommy is head
coach at Tulane, brother Jeff coaches receivers at Florida State
and brother-in-law Jack Hines coaches linebackers at Auburn.
The coach at Auburn and the coach at Florida State are a unique
and rare combination. There have been six father-son combinations
as head coaches in the NCAA, but the Bowdens are the first pair
to coach on the major college level at the same time.
Terry Bowden is doing his part to add luster and glory to the
family name. He has an overall record of 110-47-2 in 14 seasons
as a head coach, 18-13-0 at Salem, 46-22-1 at Samford and 46-12-1
at Auburn. His winning percentage would rank near the top among
active coaches had it all been compiled in Division I-A level.
Simply put, Terry Bowden is a winner. Whether it be building
a program, rebuilding a program or maintaining a program, Terry
Bowden is a winner. Terry Bowden teams are known for discipline,
preparation and tenacity, desire and enthusiasm, all characteristics
of a champion, and all characteristics of Terry Bowden himself.
A polished speaker and motivator, Bowden is in great demand as
a speaker at schools, civic clubs and business organizations.
Bowden, married to the former Shyrl Lambert, has five daughters
and a son, Tera Dawn, Jordan, Erin, Cori, Jamie and Terry Jr.
They form the first family of Auburn Football, a family Auburn
fans hope and believe will lead them well into the next century.
"I came to Auburn to stay," Bowden said. "Auburn is one of those
places you never want to leave. It has a great football tradition,
outstanding facilities and tremendous fan support. I want to grow
old and raise my children here."
If history is any indication of what is to come, there are more
bright and happy days ahead for Auburn and for the Bowden family
as Auburn football continues its climb to the top of the college
football world.
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