Bobby Bowden funeral: FSU greats Charlie Ward, Derrick Brooks share remembrances

um as we celebrate the life of a man that we loved and and left us with a lot of great memories uh thank you bob family for allowing hope to honor coach bowden through her gift of music and for me to share a few memories from my time with coach b on behalf of the charlie ward family i would like to send our consul condolences to miss ann and the bowdoin family as you mourn the transition transitioning of coach bowden i know coach had prepared everyone for his time but it is never easy to see them transition from earth to heaven however we know he is in a better place but his legacy will live on through all of us that he has touched while here on earth his why in life was to be an ambassador for christ and i would say that he succeeded at doing that along with being a great husband father great granddad and granddad and uh and football coach that taught young men how to live with the purpose he was a difference maker for the jesus christ team thank you for sharing your husband and your dad with us i was blessed to have two loving parents that taught me the value of unconditional love being prepared pushing through adversity and being patient for what god has for you as we've heard it said before that it takes a village to raise a child and coach bowden was a village dad for me i'm grateful that coach bowman listened to coach mcduffie while he stood on the top of the table to convince coach to give me a chance to play quarterback at florida state coach b continued to teach me the life lessons of the value of christian love being prepared pushing through adversity and being patient for what god has for you those lessons have stuck with me and also helped shape me into the man i am today i like to share three p's that made an impact on me the first one is preparation coach bound prepared me to be bold in my faith by making jesus christ a priority in his own life and letting everyone know that jesus wants them to be on his team he made it his business to surround his players with men that had the same mindset that he had and allowed them to make their own impact for jesus christ on the young man they coached all of his coaches embodied his spirit to serve christ and prepare us for the futures by the way they live their lives on a daily basis however there were a few coaches that he had to call into its office to let them know that their words weren't pleasing to the lord and you all know who i'm talking about he prepared me through my experience as a freshman punter that everything we do has a purpose and to be ready to make adjustments to your plan he didn't tell me that i was going to compete for the punting job because i was recruited to be a quarterback but that taught me a valuable lesson to be prepared for anything winning the punting job prepared me to know that being a team player comes in different ways and being selfless wins in the end he prepared us for the game of life every friday night devotional was always classic and bible-based he prepared me to be bold in my faith as he took us to two churches as bobby bob as uh bobby mentioned earlier he took us to two churches during the pre-season each and every day i mean each and every summer which only coach b can do because he was open and bold in his faith church and state coaches like whatever i'm just going to get it done because this is what god has called me to do he prepared me to see what humility looks like as a leader my junior year he gave up the play calling duties to coach rick and coach scott which took some humility because he had been very successful with the offense i had been groomed to run for three years but his willingness to do what is best for the team was always on display with his left selfless acts that showed me that he trusted his coaches to put our offense in the best situations so that we could use our talent differently i'm grateful for his christ-like attitude the second p is perseverance coach bowen showed me how to persevere through adversity he was about to kill me if i threw one more interception in that clemson game though adversity was something he helped me to overcome because he supported me when i was throwing the football to the wrong team a lot my junior season yes he had his doubts during that time but i'm grateful he allowed me to fail and come back to redeem myself he had the faith in me to keep pushing me forward but reminding me in that clemson game that we were wearing white not orange coach bauer gave us lifelong friendships he encouraged me to room with work done after he tragically lost his mother during his senior year of high school i learned a lot from ward my faith grew stronger as i watched and listened to him talk about his life talk about his family and what his mom meant to him wart taught me not to give up when things got tough and it was okay to lean on others whenever you needed someone to talk to coach bowden was always there the therapy is patience coach brown taught me to be patient while i wait for my chance to play quarterback he made this statement during my recruit recruitment to fsu i'm sure bobby dion tracy sanders heard this as well if you want to play quarterback then you will have to wait your turn how many of us like to wait on stuff that we won't he said wait your turn that's what he told me and i was like all right coach i'll wait my time those words were shared with my parents and me doing my recruitment to fsu i was a little concerned though after i won the punting job my freshman year if i was going to have to wait my time he told me that waiting for what you want doesn't mean you can get better you can't get better while you wait i was grateful he gave me a chance to play basketball while i was waiting which helped me to gain some valuable experience while i was waiting my turn to play qb i am grateful for coach bowden because he held to his word of allowing me to play football and basketball while getting my degree i will forever remember the life lessons that coach b taught me during my time as a student athlete and a high school coach he may be dancing in heaven but his legacy would carry on through everyone he touched as i conclude coach bowden thanks for all the memories you and i shared while you were living i love you and i will see you one day in heaven rejoice in heaven i'd like to leave you with this scripture this is my life scripture it's found in colossians 3 23-24 whatever you do whatever your task may be work from the soul that is put in your very best effort which he taught us to do as something done for the lord and not for men knowing with all certainty that it is from the lord not from men that you receive the inheritance which is your greatest reward it is the lord christ whom you actually serve coach b has gotten his inheritance may god continue to bless you and condolences to the biome family as uh charlie said us linebackers are used to making adjustments uh on the go uh whether it's covering for d.r sanders my good friend or uh coming up out of charlie ward how about that well first of all my condolences from my family to miss anne all the coaches vows in the family our condolences go out to you guys and i stand here today to honor coach the best i can but before i get to the things that i want to say i was definitely sending instructions by my good friend mr sanders if he was standing here today he just simply wanted to share with you guys and everybody how coach bowell came into his life and he needed a man in his life a godly man he said coach bowden came into his life as he called us a liberty because he was one of the very few coaches he saw on tv and he didn't understand how celebrity would come to his little old high school in fort myers florida to recruit him and he said as coach bowden gave him belief when he got here to florida state police and working hard to believe to believe in himself that he can accomplish anything and as i talked with dionys he said coach bowden just gave him a godly man that he saw how you could live through christ every single day and be the best at what you do and he says through that hard work and through that belief as he was building our program that they had the confidence to go into anyone's house and not only win a game but win it convincingly so he said he look forward to spending time with you guys tomorrow but he definitely uh wanted to share those few words so dion if you're watching i did my job now what coach bowden means to me i think about uh the three f's he said only time i'd ever make three f's in life and have a passing grade is faith family football in that order and i reflect over my relationship with coach bound since 1990 that's what it stands for for me as you heard from bobby as well as charlie coast bound outwardly lived his faith whether it was taking our team to church's non-denominational churches through the preseason through our friday night chapel services where he would take one element of the game and talk to just us players he was setting a foundation in our life to be men of character but i must tell you that faith was tested it's probably one of my favorite coach bound stories my freshman year calling into his office uh doing bowl practice and i've never been called in the coach bound's office before so i was a little nervous and you know as a freshman those players know as soon as i got to the locker room we're going to get ready to dress and he'll come mr calloway you know as a freshman mr callaway never knew your name he just called you by your number he said number 10 coach bob wants to see you don't get dressed you go right on up there and see him right now i said i don't know what i did he said i don't know either but you better get up those stairs so i go up and i'm really nervous and then i see miss sue and everyone know how sweet she is and she's like sugar coast brown wants to see you i say miss sue i don't know what i did she said i don't know but it'll be all right sister just go on in it'll be okay and i was nervous because miss students she kissed me on my forehead i was like oh boy i'm in trouble so as i went in i looked at miss sue leaving i'm thinking i want to be right with her coach sits back and and he he says derek i'm disappointed in you he said you're not living up to your potential he said you're better than what you're showing and i'm not going to stand for that and i'm thinking in my mind man there's nothing i've done because if i'd have done something wrong coach andrews would have had me running gasses stadiums cause vernon would have had me doing something i know i didn't do anything wrong so i said coach excuse me i say this i'm darren bruce number 10. you sure you got the right one and coach looked and he said absolutely and he hands me my transcript for my first semester and it's a big circle around the grade c and i made a c in a biology class and coach he looks and he said derek you've never made a c in your life from elementary to middle school to high school and you get here and you wasn't here four months and you made a seat not going to stand for that and all of a sudden i hear this voice she says coach he made what she said derek you better please please please please i'm gonna come up there and whoop your bleep please bleep and put my foot in your bleep please please little did i know cause bob had my mom on the speakerphone but little did he know that he was going to hear that type of language so coach bowden he said something he's saying miss brooks we got it i got it from here i got it from here man he hugged that phone up and he said oh my god derek he said you better get it together he said dad government i don't want her coming down here to put with your butt and mine at the same time so so you better figure this out so from that moment there it just made me fall in love with him because he made that commitment to my parents sitting in our front room in pensacola florida that he would not let me do anything below my potential it had nothing to do about what i was doing on the football field it was all about what i was doing in the classroom and he wanted me to be the best and i'm glad to sit here and tell you that my mom only came to tallahassee for games she did not have to come down here for any academic reasons so when i think of faith family football it's a faith that he lived throughout us every single day when i think of family it's how he showed us how he loved on his family he showed us how he did that with the coaches whether it was the thursday night dinners where the coaches families came and ate with our team and we had a chance to tell all the coaches wives how bad they was treating us but it was the love of having our family around after the games and being that force and then the football part yes we worked hard on the field and he showed us how we competed in practice that's the best competition possible if we did those three things would never fail in life and it went on to my post career and i had the pleasure of staying here in the state of florida and staying connected through coast bound all these years and he always built and always challenged me to keep doing the things i was doing to change life and be a man a man of character and as i close today i just want to say we all could do that we all could honor coach bowden as the legend he is but more importantly building to the legacy of how we live our lives and that carried on all the way into about two and a half weeks his last words to me and i was fortunate he had the strength to talk to me and he said these words i want to share with you he simply said derek if god give me 10 minutes or 10 years i'm at peace he said but more importantly i want you to continue changing lives in the community and dad government make sure you keep hugging your babies and that's what i'm gonna do so guys thank you coach i love you rest in peace go those [Applause]

Channel: Florida State Football - Warchant TV

Views: 50,907

Keywords: FSU football, Florida State football, Seminoles, Warchant, Noles, Florida State, Florida State football podcast, FSU, FSU schedule, FSU football schedule, FSU recruiting, fsu football recruiting, Florida State football recruiting, FSU football news, FSU recruiting news, Mike Norvell, McKenzie Milton, FSU 2021 football schedule, Florida State sports, Florida State Seminoles

Id: J3glnVxORRU

Length: 17min 10sec (1030 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 14 2021