When Tommy Bowden walks on to Frank Howard Field at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, it will feel like it is 1999.
“I think the situation I can relate it to mostly was the first time I played Florida State when my father was coaching,” he said.
Of course, 1999 was Bowden’s first season as Clemson’s head coach and it was also the first time he played his father, Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden.
“That was the first time a father and son have ever coached against each other. He was undefeated and we were playing at Clemson, national TV and gosh, we had them 14-3 at the half,” Tommy said. “But they kicked the field goal and beat us late. They then went on to win the national championship.
“I think, with the fact Clemson is playing Florida State, they are going to honor my father, I think I will have more of those flashbacks of that particular game and that moment than anything else of being back on the sideline.”
Saturday’s Clemson-Florida State game will be Tommy’s first trip back to Clemson since he and the university parted ways at the midway point of the 2008 season. He will be a part of the in-game festivities as Clemson honors the Hall of Fame career of Bobby Bowden, who passed away prior to the start of the 2021 football season.
Clemson will honor the Bowden family with a video tribute during a first-half timeout.
Tommy coached at Clemson from 1999-2008, posting a 72-45 (.615) mark in his 10 seasons running the program. His 72 wins rank fourth in Clemson history behind Frank Howard (165), Dabo Swinney (144) and Danny Ford (96).
“This really gives us a chance to show appreciation for Tommy Bowden and his family and what he did for Clemson,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said Thursday on Off Campus with Mark Packer on ESPNU Radio. “He may not have won the ACC or won the national championship while he was here, but he left Clemson better than he found it.
“He made Clemson better. There is no doubt. He did a lot of great things, but more importantly, he did things the right way. I would not be here at Clemson if it was not for Tommy Bowden.”
The Tigers never posted a losing mark in Tommy’s 10 seasons as head coach, including eight consecutive winning seasons from 2000-’07. Both of his children, Ryan and Lauren, graduated from Clemson. Ryan occasionally attends a Clemson game or two and he will be in attendance on Saturday with his family, including his son Bobby Bowden.
“I stayed there right at ten years, and I had a really good experience. It did not end the way I wanted. I would have loved to do what Dabo is doing. That is every coach’s goal and dream. Our ambition is to have the success that he is having, but I had enough (success),” Tommy said. “My children had a great experience. They have both been successful professionally. I was really pleased with the quality of education offered and the way they prepared them academically for life in the business world.
“They had a pleasant experience. My wife and I had a pleasant experience. We have really fond memories of the ten years I was there.”
Bobby and Tommy met nine times in college football’s first Father vs. Son coaching matchup. Bobby’s Seminoles won five times to Tommy’s four, but Clemson won four of the final five meetings, including each of the last three Bowden Bowls, as it was affectionately called.
“Initially, it was fun,” Tommy said. “Father vs. Son. It was a close game, and he went on to win the national championship. I figured, ‘I am closing the gap already. I am doing such a great job.’ Then he just embarrassed me the next two or three years. He just beat me really, really bad.”
Tommy finally broke through in 2003, as Clemson upset then No. 3 Florida State 26-10 at Death Valley. He and the Tigers also beat his dad in the 2005, ’06 and ’07 matchups. The 2006 game was Clemson’s first victory in Tallahassee since 1989, as the Tigers stunned a No. 9 Florida State team, 27-20.
Always the jokester, Tommy kept things as light-hearted as he could when trying to explain the uniqueness of going against his father every year.
“It might be best to explain it this way. After I lost the first four, the athletic director calls me and says, ‘We hired you to beat Florida State. If you can’t beat your father, we will find somebody that can.’ That kind of got my attention and of course I won the next four out of five. Then his athletic director called him in and said, ‘Hey, we hired you to beat Clemson. You can’t even beat your son, so we will find someone that can.’ So, they solved that, and they fired us both,” Tommy said while laughing.
But joking aside, Tommy said he is very appreciative of what Clemson is doing to honor his father on Saturday, and he cannot wait to be back at Death Valley to experience it all.
“Dabo and athletic director Dan Radakovich flew down for the funeral and we were standing by my mother, and they were talking to her, which was really nice of them to come down,” Tommy said. “We were talking, the three of us, and Dabo brought it up in front of the athletic director, ‘Man, we sure would like to get you and Linda back and maybe honor your father at the Florida State game.’
“I don’t know if the AD approved of it or not, but he kind of put him on the spot,” Tommy continued while laughing. “So, I figured, that was a nice gesture right there.”
Tommy kept the date open, and Swinney came through like he said he would. And now, Saturday’s game between Clemson and Florida State will seem like it is 1999. At least for Tommy Bowden, anyway.
