The Bowden family, arguably the First Family of ACC football, released a statement updating the condition Wednesday of Hall of Fame coach Bobby Bowden, recently diagnosed with COVID-19.
Not only is the patriarch of the Bowden family recovering, but he's making statements about his desire to fight the pandemic disease in order to support incumbent President Donald Trump in next month's election.
“I want to thank all the many, many people who were thinking of and praying for me over the last few weeks,” Bobby Bowden said in a release from his son, former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. “I just went through a battle with COVID-19, and God just wasn’t ready to take me Home yet to be with Him. …
“I've had a chance to get a lot of wins in my life, but I really wanted to win this one because I wanted to be around to vote for President Trump.”
Almost 91, with a birthday five days after the Nov. 3 elections, Bowden owns more than 400 wins on the gridiron – though his all-time reflect reflects fewer than that because some wins at Florida State were stripped by the NCAA.
Still, Bowden's not shied from public space since his retirement at Florida State after the 2009 season, and he spoke on Trump's behalf prior to the 2016 election.
“For too long now, politicians in Washington have run America down,” Bowden is quoted as saying in the release, “and apologized for our greatness. I'm tired of it.
“Like President Trump, I had the opportunity to be treated for COVID-19 with drugs to include Remdesivir. At the age of (almost) 91, in many other countries, I might not have been treated. In America, I was.”
Bowden won a pair of national championships atop the FSU program, in both 1993 and 1999; he also guided the Seminoles to a dozen ACC championships once Florida State joined the conference in 1992 after an extended stretch as a college football independent.