Don’t go anywhere — get ready for ‘next act’

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

“This is where I came in.”

There’s a phrase unknown to folks below a certain age; has to do with the way movie theatres operated up through the end of the 1950s. Even small towns had two, sometimes three theaters and perhaps a drivein movie. They ran mostly B films: westerns, horror, some adventures, maybe slapstick with Abbott & Costello.

People didn’t pay much attention to the start times because the films were simple. It was common practice to walk in and sit down in the middle of a movie, watch the cartoons that played between shows and then stay to watch it over from the beginning until you saw where you came in. At that point you simply got up and left.

That phrase came back to me upon discovery of an old Seminole wall poster. It was produced in black & white by the Athletic Department, and pictured a young Bobby Bowden being carried off the field by his jubilant team after winning the Tangerine Bowl in late December, 1977.

I was back in Tallahassee then, preparing to begin my career with Seminole Boosters, Inc. That wall poster reflected the exuberance of Seminole fans and the optimism that had arrived with Bobby Bowden. One quadrant of the poster displayed a final poll for 1977. There was Florida State — toward the bottom to be sure at #18 — but Seminole fans could not have been more proud.

The headline proclaimed Bobby Bowden’s words: “We’re Not Second Rate Any More!” Gone was the frustration of losing seasons; the gloom of defeat had been exorcised. Seminoles dared to think of themselves as first rate again, and hungered for respect and victories.

Our Seminoles have run many courses since then. We won more football games than any other college team in the 1990s. The first seven years of this new decade have not been without their charms, but the paths of glory have slowly overgrown.

This August the USAToday preseason rankings were published and for the first I can recall as a Booster employee, my Seminoles did not appear anywhere in the Top 25. We can’t blame USAToday. Lots of predictors have stuck their necks out for us the last few years only to be slapped down by a pair of 7-6 seasons.

No, back-to-back 7-6 seasons with attendant bowl games are not the same as 0-11 and 1-10 and 2-9 like those before Bowden. But to fans used to the good stuff, back-to-back 7-6 seasons are unacceptably grim. And Seminole fans are certainly used to the good stuff. Even before the 14-year Dynasty, Bobby Bowden brought the good stuff to FSU almost immediately upon his arrival. In the late 1970s he exhilarated fans with a pair of Orange Bowls and a string of victories four in a row over our biggest rival.

Optimists among us believe we see the debris being cleared away from those paths to glory. Word from the Moore Center in preseason is that Coach Bowden is out of his tower and down on the field pushing the boys, energizing his staff. They say he looks like a young man — a younger man at any rate — moving among the troops.

Jimbo Fisher they say prowls the practice field like a man possessed, a description embraced by Seminole fans hungry once more for victory and respect.

I have a sense that the foundation is solid once again. No doubt this could be another rough year, and even in the best case it is assuredly not the year. But the year is coming and when it does it will signal the start of a long run.

On August 22nd it was announced as a small matter in passing that Florida State will play Samford University in 2010. It will be the last year of Jimbo Fisher’s three year contract that specifies he must be named Head Coach at the end of the season. Bobby Bowden knows he has the option to renew his own contract year-to-year.

There is always speculation as to when Coach Bowden might retire. No one knows the answer, but it’s curious that Samford has made a ghostly reappearance on the schedule of that most significant season three years hence.

In October of 1950, the Samford team came here to play on the night we dedicated Doak Campbell stadium. Bobby Bowden was Samford’s sophomore quarterback, a couple of years before he made All-America, before he was named Team Captain. We have a brief span of grainy footage from the game.

What would it be like to stand next to Bobby Bowden on the sidelines when Samford returns to play on the same field again in 2010? Who could fathom his thoughts?

Consider the circle of time drawn with such elegant symmetry, exactly sixty years from beginning to end.

“This is where I came in.”

I see where the Seminole story line is headed and I sense this is just about where I came in more than three decades ago.

But I enjoyed the feature presentation so much the first time, I think I’ll stick around and watch some of it again.