Seed of the Wondrous Tree; Origin of the Dynasty

By Charlie Barnes

The speed of light is relative to the observer. So, it seems, is the speed of time. Bobby Bowden's Seminole Dynasty lasted 14 years. There has now been a greater distance in time - 15 seasons - since the Dynasty ended. For fans whose memories are forever enriched by the glories of that breathtaking run of consecutive 10-win seasons and Top Four finishes, it feels hardly possible we have to look back nearly three decades to find the beginning.

When did the seed of The Dynasty take root, and will we ever see that wondrous tree bloom again? So far no one has been able to duplicate the astonishing run of 14 seasons, and the 1999 Seminoles were the first to earn a flawless, wire-to-wire #1 ranking, from pre-season through national championship.

Bobby Bowden was 58 years old when the Dynasty began and 71 when it ended. Nick Saban, at 65, certainly seems to have the Alabama program well in hand. I do believe 50-year-old Jimbo Fisher will prove to be perhaps the best Head Coach of his generation.

How difficult would it be to reproduce or surpass the Dynasty record? I'd say either Saban or Fisher has the best chance. Recruiting Jimbo Fisher to his staff in 2007 might rival the Dynasty as Bobby Bowden's greatest legacy to Seminole football.

In duplicating the Dynasty, the ten-win threshold is no longer the challenge it was thirty years ago. More teams today play twelve, thirteen, fourteen, possibly even fifteen games in a season.

But the Top Four finish is the killer.

No analogy is exact but here's one I like. In any given PGA tournament, a touring pro has a 5% chance of sinking a 40-foot putt. When one does go in there's a loud whoop from the crowd (golfing spectators aren't prone to do a lot of cheering).

As explained by my good Seminole friend Doug Russell, "Most greens are not flat, so negotiating a long putt requires incredible skill and course knowledge. There are so many variables that go into the calculation of reading a green, especially for a long putt: multiple speeds, many different slopes, angles, lines. Different grasses have different grains and impact the roll and break. Line, aim, speed and stroke. You need some luck too. Coach Bowden often said you need a certain amount of luck to win it all, and the same is true in a long putt."

The 1987 season was the first of Bobby Bowden's 40-foot putts.

That year we were #3 when we lost to #4 Miami in October on a failed two-point conversion. In the Fiesta Bowl, FSU came from two touchdowns back to edge #5 Nebraska 31-28 and win a #2 final ranking behind National Champion Miami. It was the first New Year's Day Bowl the Seminoles had ever won. And it was the beginning.

Now here's the remarkable question. What do you think the chances are of making fourteen of those 40-foot putts in a row? That is in effect what Bowden did. He sank fourteen consecutive putts without missing one.

You remember the intermittent chaos of those years: the Footlocker affair, the conflict over Osceola as a symbol, controversy over ACC officiating, the Peter Warrick business, brawls on the field vs. the Gators, the hostility of media and the ravings of Steve Spurrier.

The landscape was different each year Bowden lined up his "putt." Sometimes it was raining, sometimes windy; sometimes people were screaming at him; sometimes idiots would run across the green and tear up the turf. It didn't matter. He never missed. He made fourteen 40-foot putts in a row.

John Corry, an FSU alumnus and award-winning documentary filmmaker is producing a film about Bobby Bowden and the Dynasty. Look for its nationwide release on January 8, 2017. The working title is: THE BOWDEN DYNASTY: A Story of Faith, Family & Football.

Corry and his crew have spent long months interviewing all the coaches and principal figures of that era, searching as he says for "the seeds of the Dynasty."

So where are the seeds of the Dynasty to be found?

In the early years of the Bobby Bowden Tour it felt like we were travelling tent evangelists, except we also played golf. We drove from town to town late at night to spend all the next day and share an evening meal with the Seminole Booster Clubs. Just like the tent preachers, there was "singin' and shoutin', preachin' and prayin'" and it was all about the Seminoles.

One dark night when Coach Bowden and I were driving the highways and back roads in the spring of 1985, the conversation turned to his stellar recruiting class and the state of the program. We talked about the fact that all of us fans had been spoiled by Bowden's exhilarating success in the late 1970s.

By 1985 Bobby had been here almost a decade. After the back-to-back Orange Bowl years, the program had sort of flattened out. Oh, Florida State always had winning seasons, always went to a bowl game and nearly always won those bowls. But for a while there in the early 1980s we just couldn't seem to knock down Florida or Miami or Auburn, and the fans were restless.

We talked about it. He said, "I don't know how long it will take - but if I got another recruiting class like the one we got this spring - I don't care who we play.

I didn't understand at the time, but of course we all know the names now: Sammie, Deion, Odell, Peter Tom ... That class was so phenomenal we didn't even have to use last names. Michael Tanks, Chip Ferguson, Pat Tomberlin, Dedrick Dodge. FSU signed 29 players altogether.

That 1985 class must have contained the seeds of the Dynasty. But if I had to point to a singularity, I would say the actual beginning of the Dynasty was the worst bowl weekend that I have ever endured.

At the end of the 1986 season we were 6-5 and invited to play in the All-American Bowl in Birmingham. Our opponent was 6-5 Indiana. That year we lost to Miami and Florida, and had lost to Auburn each of the previous three years.

The weather was ghastly - snow, followed by freezing rain and sleet. But even the black clouds that blanketed Birmingham were not as dark as the mood of the Seminole fans and the big Boosters who travelled to the game.

The University of Alabama was looking for a new coach and Bobby Bowden had always been honest about his desire to go home if Alabama called. It seemed to Seminole fans that the deal was inevitable.

Also stoking discontent was awareness of our own Athletic Director's ambition to become Athletic Director at Alabama (which he eventually did). Fans speculated on whose behalf he might be working.

You have to understand the psychological history of Florida State fans. We were the second sons. For so long, we always got the hand-me-downs. We wore the chip on our shoulder.

And Bobby Bowden had changed that. He became the national face of Florida State. His public personality was identified as ours, and for the first time we were a respected and envied program beyond the borders of our own state. We liked it. And we especially liked him.

Sure, we wanted to start beating Miami and Florida and Auburn again, but we wanted him to do it. And he was leaving. All the old insecurities came flooding back. It was dark and cold and miserable in Birmingham and Bobby was leaving and we couldn't do a damn thing about it.

There's a story that may or may not be true, but I like to believe it is. Former Miami Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger was a good friend of Bowden and a favorite of Seminole fans. Schnellenberger was available and, so the story is told, was prepared to board a private jet in Opa-locka and fly to Birmingham should the announcement come that Bowden had departed for Alabama.

Our fans felt powerless in the face of sinister forces beyond our control, and Schnellenberger was the closest thing to Bobby Bowden. If Bobby did leave, the fans and big Boosters would take it on themselves to recruit a replacement.

The folks who ran the All-American Bowl were really nice and they did the best they could, but that was the last year of that particular bowl game.

Kickoff came at 8 o'clock at night in the driving snowstorm that turned to frozen sleet at halftime. The game was sold out but there wasn't a single human being in that stadium other than followers of FSU and Indiana. The people of Birmingham are great football fans but they're not suicidal. Birmingham newspapers and television and radio stations all promoted the All American Bowl as Bobby Bowden's final game as Head Coach of FSU.

At halftime the snow turned to rain and then sleet, and we just sat there. A character in the Peanuts cartoon series mourned, "It always rains on the unloved." There we were, squinting up into the black night sky, freezing, wet, unloved, bitter and sad.

We won the bowl game, 27-13. Sammie scored a pair of touchdowns and afterward we walked back to the hotel wondering what was going to become of us.

Bobby and Ann decided to drive back to Tallahassee from Birmingham. He said when they drove up to their home in Killearn the front lawn was filled with trucks and cameras and television cables ... so they kept going.

They meandered the long road around Killearn and talked about the future. He knew he had a great staff and a stable filled with extraordinarily talented players. By the time they finally drove back to their home, they had decided to stay in Tallahassee.

The next fall - 1987 - we opened at home against Texas Tech. Burt Reynolds flew in to dedicate Burt Reynolds Hall. He brought his wife Lonnie Anderson with him along with actor pals Bernie Casey and Dom Delouise. There was a huge gathering at the Civic Center headlined as "Bernie & The Bandit" with University President Bernie Sliger dressed as the Sheriff from Burt's 'Bandit' movies.

On that first day if the first weekend of the first year of the Dynasty, it wasn't dark or snowing or raining. The sun was clear. Burt Reynolds was at that moment the top male box office draw in the world. And Bobby Bowden would go on to become the winningest head football coach in Division I history. It was a fabulous beginning.

The Dynasty was a unique record. No one ever achieved it before; certainly no one has done it since.

So the next time you're having a conversation with someone who wants to know what was so special about Bobby Bowden and the Dynasty, answer with a question. Ask them: "How many National Championships have been won by schools that didn't start playing football until after World War II?"

The answer is: Three. And all three of those trophies are available for your viewing in the Football Offices of the Moore Athletic Center at Florida State University.

Charlie Barnes is the retired executive director and senior vice president of Seminole Boosters. His book, "Dynasty: Seminole Football Glory in the 1990s" is available on Amazon.com. Contact him at cbarnes161@comcast.net.