Tommy Pearce Bowden (; born July 10, 1954) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach. He served as the head coach at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

from 1999 until October 13, 2008. He is a son of

Bobby Bowden Robert Cleckler Bowden (; November 8, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was an American college football coach. Bowden coached the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University (FSU) from 1976 to 2009 and is considered one of the greatest college ...

, former head football coach of

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, against whom he coached in games nicknamed the "Bowden Bowl." He is also a brother of Terry Bowden, who served as the head coach of Auburn.

Coaching career

Before coming to Clemson, Bowden was the head coach at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

, and an assistant at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publ ...

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

, the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

and, with his father, at

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

. His 1998 Tulane squad went 12–0 and achieved a top-10 final ranking in both polls. Despite being one of only two undefeated teams in the regular season, Tulane was not even considered for a bid in a

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, includin ...

game because it was believed they had not played a difficult schedule. Tommy Bowden-Clemson 2006

Bowden was hired as Clemson's head coach before the 1999 season. Bowden's Clemson teams went to a

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

every year he coached there, except in 2004, when, after a brawl with rival

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, both teams withdrew from bowl consideration for that season. He resigned on October 13, 2008, after leading the team to a disappointing 3–3 record (1–2 ACC) at the midpoint of a season in which the Tigers had been an almost unanimous preseason pick to win their first ACC title under Bowden and were ranked #9 in the preseason polls. Assistant head coach/wide receivers coach

Dabo Swinney William Christopher "Dabo" Swinney (; born November 20, 1969) is an American football coach, currently serving as the head coach at Clemson University. Swinney took over midway through the 2008 season, following the resignation of Tommy Bowden. S ...

was named as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. In ten seasons, Bowden led the Tigers to zero conference championships, finishing only as high as second in the conference twice and second in the Atlantic division three times.

Personal

Bowden attended and played football for

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

from 1972 through 1976. He is married to Linda White and has two children, Ryan and Lauren. He is a son of former

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivi ...

head coach, the late

and has two sisters and three brothers, including

Terry Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albrit ...

, former head coach at Auburn University , and

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form ( hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes ...

, who served as an assistant coach on his brother Terry's staff. Bowden is an

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

. He has openly used his religion as a recruiting tool, saying that his faith “was a tremendous recruiting advantage.”

Head coaching record

*Self-imposed punishment for team fight with South Carolina
^‡ Bowden resigned on October 13, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Tommy 1954 births Living people Auburn Tigers football coaches Clemson Tigers football coaches Duke Blue Devils football coaches East Carolina Pirates football coaches Florida State Seminoles football coaches Kentucky Wildcats football coaches Tulane Green Wave football coaches West Virginia Mountaineers football players Morgantown High School alumni Players of American football from Birmingham, Alabama Sportspeople from Birmingham, Alabama Sportspeople from Morgantown, West Virginia Coaches of American football from West Virginia Players of American football from West Virginia