AHEAD OF THE CLASS : FLORIDA STATE REMAINS THANKFUL FOR BOWDEN.

Byline: Brent Kallestad Associated Press 

Don't ask Bobby Bowden's secretary if the 67-year-old coach is slowing down.

``I wish he would, it would make my job easier,'' said Sue Hall, Bowden's administrative right arm for the past 18 years. ``I think it's worse than ever.''

At a time of life when most people are beginning to enjoy retirement, Bowden is gearing up for another ``Game of the Century.''

For the fourth time in five years Saturday, Bowden leads his team into a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 matchup - this time with rival Florida.

How times have changed at Florida State since Bowden's arrival just over 20 years ago.

Following a mediocre half dozen years at West Virginia, Bowden joined Florida State in 1976, taking over a team that had a 4-29 record over the three previous seasons.

Ann Bowden, the coach's wife of 48 years, wasn't sure Florida State was the right place for her husband. They had already turned him down for the job once.

``They really hadn't hit the big time yet,'' she said. ``I think Bobby wanted to come south again and this job was available.''

But Bowden agreed to visit athletic director John Bridgers, and on the trip to Tallahassee Ann Bowden spotted the home the family still lives in.

``I told Bobby, `I like that house,' '' she said. The rest has become college football history.

``Bobby was a no-name player from a no-name school and he just worked himself up the ladder. He never had anybody going to bat for him.

``Everything he ever did was because of Bobby Bowden, not because he played for a big school or played for a big-time coach.''

In 21 seasons at Florida State, Bowden's program has lost 49 games - only 13 in the last 10 seasons and nine in the '90s. Not only has he spawned one of college football's great careers but also the sport's first family.

Bowden's son Terry coaches Auburn, where son Tommy is offensive coordinator and son-in-law Jack Hines coaches defensive backs. The youngest Bowden boy, Jeff, is the wide receivers coach for his dad.

``I really want my daughter-in-laws to be very, very supportive and allow them the time they need to pursue their profession,'' Ann Bowden said. ``I try to tell them `When he succeeds, you succeed. You succeed together.' ''

Bobby Bowden is considered on a level of his own as a recruiter. He has attracted some of the game's great players to Florida State, including two-sport stars Deion Sanders and Charlie Ward, who won the Heisman Trophy three years ago.

``No one does a better job coaching the great athlete than Bobby Bowden,'' retiring Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said.

``Bobby realizes there is a certain time where you just have to let the player's ability take over,'' said Ed O'Toole, a longtime friend who played for Bowden at Howard College and later coached with him.

Bowden isn't impatient either, sometimes putting his greatest prospects on the bench for a couple years to season.

Bowden needs 55 more victories, probably six more seasons, to overtake Bear Bryant's record of 323 victories. That would carry him through a home-and-home against Notre Dame scheduled in 2001 and 2002.

``He'd like to win another national championship and coach at least 25 years (at Florida State),'' Ann Bowden said. ``He'd love to have an undefeated season. Two more games and we can do that.''

But isn't hasn't always been smooth sailing for Bowden.

He was disappointed the school's 1993 national title was clouded by the ``Foot Locker'' scandal when several of the Seminoles players accepted free clothes and shoes from a local sporting goods store. An ensuing NCAA investigation cleared Bowden and his coaches but resulted in probation with no sanctions.

After a 53-14 loss to the Gators 13 years ago, Bowden worried if he had taken Florida State as far as he could.

``The thing an assistant coach is not prepared for when you become a head coach is the criticism,'' Bowdeinn said. ``But that's where this profession is. I've learned, the older you get, how to handle it.''

Another crossroads came following the 1986 season when Alabama - Bowden's dream job for much of his life - came calling.

``We got him to stay,'' recalled former Florida State president Bernie Sliger, who had earlier restructured Bowden's contract so that if another school wanted to hire him it would have to pay Florida State five times the amount of Bowden's annual salary.

``He's the most important person at the university as I see it,'' Sliger said. ``He has a good reputation nationally and he recruits so well.''

Bowden's boyhood buddies from Birmingham, Ala., remember growing up with him during the '40s.

``We were always playing,'' said John Robert Hill, an insurance executive in Mobile, Ala. ``He was mischievous like the rest of us, but he always had that sense. You knew he was kind of special.''

Bowden had rheumatic fever as a youth and played the trombone. He sneaked off to a neighborhood field to play sports, and his parents didn't let him play competitively until he was a sophomore in high school. At 19 he ran off and eloped with his 16-year-old high school sweetheart.

``He didn't tell anybody for a while,'' recalled Vince Gibson, the former coach at Louisville, Tulane and Kansas State who also ran in the same group as a boy. ``He quit Alabama and they went to Howard (now Samford). They had the babies and everything and were just as active as they could be, both of them.''

As an assistant at West Virginia he turned down an offer to coach Marshall University. Rick Tolley took the job and was killed in 1970 when the team's plane crashed.

Bowden later passed up an opportunity to coach LSU and the school hired Bo Rein, who died in a private plane crash.

``Things have worked out,'' Bowden says. ``I keep saying, `Why have you been so good to me Lord?' ''

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Photo: ``Things have worked out,'' says FSU coach Bobby Bowden says. ``I keep saying, `Why have yoinu been so good to me Lord?' ''

Associated Press