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          Tributes pour in honoring Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden

          • Jeremy Willis, ESPN.comAug 8, 2021, 08:57 AM ET

          Legendary Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden died Sunday morning, and the game lost one of its indelible icons.

          Bowden coached at Florida State from 1976 to 2009, building the Seminoles' program into a national powerhouse. He won the 1993 and 1999 national championships and produced two Heisman trophy winners and scores of All-Americans and NFL draft picks. He also won 357 games in his coaching career, ranking second all time.

          In July it was announced that Bowden had a terminal medical condition. He was 91.

          "He was one of a kind," former Florida State running back Warrick Dunn said in a tweet.

          His homespun, Southern charm as well as his success made him a beloved figure in the sport. Tribute poured in Sunday morning when Florida State announced his death.

          "Coach Bowden was one of the greatest coaches ever, but more than that he was an incredible man," FSU coach Mike Norvell said in a statement. "He was a special human being who earned an enduring legacy because of his wonderful heart, faith and values he lived. It was the honor of my lifetime to know him and beyond anything I could dream to have a relationship with him.

          With Bowden, FSU became a dominant program in the 1980s and '90s, ranking in the top five of the AP poll from 1987 to 2000. Many of his players posted messages Sunday.

          FSU players

          Bowden's games with rivals Miami, Florida and later Clemson often carried national title implications and lived on in nickname-worthy lore. The was "Wide Right I" and its sequels. The "Choke at Doak" and the "Bowden Bowl" where Bobby Bowden faced his son Tommy Bowden, who was coach at Clemson in the late '90s and early 2000s. Those rivals paid their respects as well.

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