- Jun 12, 2014
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Founding Member
I attended a FCA banquet last week and the speakers were Willie Simons (FAMU HC) and Bobby Bowden. Simmons was a good speaker and has done well at the mess that was FAMU. Among Tallahassee college football coaches, he is the best Willie by far.
Coach Bowden, at 89, was entertaining with a good memory though he had a couple of gaffs with a name and a date. He's quite feeble and has to be helped to and from. One of his first stories centered around Burt Reynolds. Seems Burt would occasionally call and offer to buy the team new uniforms. Having done this twice, he called Bobby prior to their game in Jax with Bama few years back and wanted to once again buy new uni's. Bobby declined saying that by that time they had every combination of uniforms imaginable. New helmets? Nope, got three or four different ones already. Cleats? No, plenty of them. So Burt tells him he's sending $50K and tellsBobby to just get the team something it needs.
On the eve of the game, Burt flies into Jax from Hollywood and meets Bobby. After a short bull session he takes Burt on the field for pre-game. He notices Burt's looking around to see what new stuff the team has that he paid for, but everything looks the same. Finally he tells Bobby that he can't see anything new and wants to know what Bobby spent the $50K on? Bobby tells Burt that he used it like Burt wished and bought something he knew the team was going to need for the game...the refs!
My first inclination was to jump up and shout "Hell, I knew it all along!" However, my sense of decorum at the FCA event (and my sobriety) prevented such. And even though the story was an ice breaker, I took it as an overdue confession!
Coach Bowden, at 89, was entertaining with a good memory though he had a couple of gaffs with a name and a date. He's quite feeble and has to be helped to and from. One of his first stories centered around Burt Reynolds. Seems Burt would occasionally call and offer to buy the team new uniforms. Having done this twice, he called Bobby prior to their game in Jax with Bama few years back and wanted to once again buy new uni's. Bobby declined saying that by that time they had every combination of uniforms imaginable. New helmets? Nope, got three or four different ones already. Cleats? No, plenty of them. So Burt tells him he's sending $50K and tellsBobby to just get the team something it needs.
On the eve of the game, Burt flies into Jax from Hollywood and meets Bobby. After a short bull session he takes Burt on the field for pre-game. He notices Burt's looking around to see what new stuff the team has that he paid for, but everything looks the same. Finally he tells Bobby that he can't see anything new and wants to know what Bobby spent the $50K on? Bobby tells Burt that he used it like Burt wished and bought something he knew the team was going to need for the game...the refs!
My first inclination was to jump up and shout "Hell, I knew it all along!" However, my sense of decorum at the FCA event (and my sobriety) prevented such. And even though the story was an ice breaker, I took it as an overdue confession!
