Inspirational Bobby Bowden Quotes to Motivate You

Bobby Bowden came to Florida State in 1976 from West Virginia. He had found success with the Mountaineers, but Florida State was going to be its own challenge. For younger college football fans, Florida State is a program that you expect to be good, but that’s not what they were at the time. The truth is that Bobby Bowden inherited a bad team with no history of success. It was Bowden who turned Florida State into a consistent national power, by being willing to play anyone, recruiting well, developing players, and instilling a strong culture. In the end, Bobby Bowden and Florida State won two National Championships and went to a bowl game every season from 1982 through his retirement after the 2009 season.

Bobby Bowden was an incredibly quotable coach. Here are a few of his greatest quotes:

10 Best Quotes From Bobby Bowden

1. I was always going to church with my mom, dad, and sister. I was literally raised under the godly influence both at home and church. There was no alcohol and no smoking at our house. That was the way a Bowden was supposed to live. My dad always to me to represent the Bowden name in a respectful manner.
2. “He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere, or I’m afraid I’d wilt on the vine, too.”
3. “The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.”
4. “I’ve always said it takes more courage to stand back there and throw a ball knowing you’re fixing to get drilled than anything I can think of in football.”
5. “When I go after something, I go after it hard. It has always been that way. I don’t know, it’s in my blood.”
6. “I learned a long time ago that you don’t have to go around using bad language and trying to hurt people to show how macho you are. That stuff won’t get you anywhere, it just shows lack of vocabulary and character.”
7. “I learned more from the mistakes than from the good things.”
8. “Integrity makes my job easier. It’s deception and dishonesty that requires so much diligent effort.”
9. “Courage is doing something you need to do that might get you hurt.”
10. “Discipline to me is sacrifice; it’s willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.”

Inspirational Quotes From Bowden

• “Don’t go to the grave with life unused.”
• “I’ve never felt like you could develop character without adversity.”
• “After you retire, there’s only one big event left…and I ain’t ready for that.”
• “Faith is the most important thing in the world to me, It’s the greatest strength I’ve had, It’s helped me get through the hard times.”

Leadership Quotes From Bobby Bowden

• “Something has to happen that you can’t coach.”
• “A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.”
• “He who gets the best players usually wins.”

Funny Quotes From Bobby Bowden

• “Somehow, I went from being too young, to being too old. Somewhere in there I must have been just right.”
• “The boy don’t know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades, and that boy don’t know the meaning of a lot of words.”
• “Son, you’ve got a good engine, but your hands aren’t on the steering wheel.”
• “A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better.”

Team Attitude Quotes From Bowden

• “I am not happy with moral victories. Those things are forgotten.”
• “If somebody mistreats you, treat em good. That kills em.”
• “If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the National Championship every year.”
• “I’ve always said I’m not going to make football my god.”

Success Quotes From Bobby Bowden

• “I suppose I’m like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question.”
• “There’s only about six inches that turns that halo into a noose.”
• “As good as we were, we didn’t win a National Championship until 1993, mainly because we kept losing to Miami on missed kicks. I used to get mad because nobody else would play Miami. Notre Dame would play them, then drop them. Florida dropped them. Penn State dropped them. We would play Miami and lose by one point on a missed field goal, and it would knock us out of the National Championship. I didn’t want to play them, either, but I had to play them. That’s what I said, ‘When I die, they’ll say at least he played Miami.'”
• “People that are brilliant and successful, we think they’ve just always been that way, Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life.”