Bobby Bowden bothered by Spurrier’s salary, cheated death twice
"I remember saying, 'Look, he's making twice what I made. It don't look good."...
Bobby Bowden's radio tour promoting his book has involved a lot of the repetitive questions you'd expect and at least one relevant question that has not been raised. You know that little ol' academic cheating scandal that resulted in the NCAA taking away a dozen of Bowden's victories. Bowden has alluded to it various times, but I've yet to hear an interviewer ask Bowden about his role in it, what he should have known at the time, or what he thought the proper penalty should have been since he and the university fought the forfeiture of the victories.
While reminiscing about other topics previously covered, it certainly deserves a follow up.
In any case, the Dan Patrick show managed to do what it often does: cover ground that other radio programs somehow can't manage.
The conversation landed, at one point, on salary and whether that was a problem with keeping Bowden on board for one more season. Bowden slightly shifted the topic to his long time rivalry with the Florida Gators.
"I made 2 and a half million dollars. How can I complain? I couldn't. Now, the Florida guy always made double what I made."
Asked if it bothered him, Bowden joked:
"Not Urban (Meyer) because Urban whipped me every year. Hey, I was sending a check to Urban but Steve I was beating some so I talked to our A.D. I remember saying, 'Look, he's making twice what I made. It don't look good. We're out there recruiting. They're paying that guy double me.'"
"I said, 'Get me up there with him. I'll donate it back to the university.' But we never did."
Bowden later talked about his early coaching years and how he turned down head coaching jobs at two universities that likely saved his life. The two coaches who would fill those roles, Rick Tolley at Marshall and Bo Rein at LSU, would both go on to die in plane crashes.
The Marshall job came open when he was still the offensive coordinator at West Virginia in 1968:
"We were thinking I could get a bigger job if I stayed here. So I turned it down. The guy that took the job. ...He took the job. That plane crashed in 1970 and everyone got killed. You know, I dodged that twice."
"I turned down the LSU job in 1980. I was offered it. I turned it down. Bo Rein took the job and he was recruiting, probably in January. He got killed in a plane crash so I feel like I dodged that a couple times."
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