The last time Clemson’s Dabo Swinney spoke with Hall of Fame head coach Bobby Bowden was two weeks ago, while he sat in the same end zone where Bowden’s Florida State Seminoles ran perhaps the most famous trick play in the history of college football – Puntrooskie.
“I told him I am sitting in the stadium right here (where it happened),” Swinney said following Monday’s practice behind the Allen Reeves Football Complex in Clemson.
Swinney knew the conversation was going to be his last with Bobby Bowden. FSU’s legendary coach passed away Sunday at the age of 91.
It was September 17, 1988, at Death Valley, when the Seminoles faced fourth down on their own 20-yard line with the game tied at 21. With less than two minutes to play in the game, knowing if he gave the football back to Clemson he would likely lose, Bowden ran the fake of all fake punts.
The play was called Puntrooskie, as up-man Dayne Williams took the snap on the fake punt, while the punter acted as if the ball went over his head. Williams stuck the ball between LeRoy Butler’s legs and then rolled right. Butler waited a second, then took off down the left sideline, racing 79 yards before Clemson’s Donnell Woolford tackled him out of bounds at the one-yard line.
After a penalty on the next play, the Seminoles kicked a game-winning field goal to stun the capacity crowd at Death Valley.
“What a great man, what a great example,” Swinney said. “I think I am the luckiest coach in the country to be quite honest with you.”
Swinney says he is lucky because he got to play and coach seven years under Gene Stallings. And though he never met Hall of Fame head coach Bear Bryant or Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry, he was influenced by both of them through Stallings. Then, thanks to working six years under Tommy Bowden at Clemson, he got to meet, know, and be influenced by Bobby Bowden.
“So, for me, to have the influences of all those coaches through my mentors, I am the luckiest coach in the world,” Swinney said. “He has had a huge impact on me. I loved him before I knew him. And before I came to Clemson, you known sometimes when you love people and you think you do, but then you get to know them and you are like, ‘Oh God! He is a jerk!’
“But when I got to know [Bobby Bowden], man, he was even better than you can perceive. That is special.”
Swinney also recalled a trip he made with Tommy Bowden to Tallahassee during a recruiting trip in 2005 when Tommy popped in to surprise his dad. Bobby was watching tape when they came in and after they sat down and visited for a few minutes, Tommy pops up and leaves.
“He just walks out. He just leaves me,” Swinney said. “So, it was just me and Bobby Bowden and we had this really cool conversation. Then when I became the interim, one of the first calls I got, that night as an interim coach, was from Bobby Bowden.
“He said, ‘I just want you to know all the Bowdens are behind you.’ That is the type of man he was. That is the type of class he was.”
Swinney continued by saying Bobby Bowden was an example to all coaches everywhere because as a coach, at the end of the day, it is not going to be about the Xs and Os they knew, but it is always going to be about the hearts and souls they grew.
“And nobody did that better than Bobby Bowden,” the Clemson coach said. “His purpose in life was very clear, and that was to know [God] and make Him known. That was it. He won a few games along the way, but he never forgot what his purpose was.”
Swinney said it was hard to get off the phone with Bowden that afternoon because he knew it was going to be the last time he talked to him. So, he had one last request before he ended the call.
“Even in the very end, he an unbelievable sense of humor. The thing I told him before I hung up the phone, and it was really hard to hang up the phone,” Swinney said. “But the last thing I told him was I said, ‘Alright Coach, if you get to Heaven before me. Just maybe, every now and then, get one of them balls through the uprights or something like that.’ But he goes, ‘Boy! You don’t want my help. I have a tendency to be wide!’
“I just died laughing. That’s classic Bobby Bowden. I am forever grateful to spend time with him.”
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