Called to Coach: Reflections on Life, Faith, and Football »

Bobby Bowden is the second winningest coach in the history of major college football. In his 34 years as the head coach at Florida State, he has had only one losing season, his first in 1976. He is the only coach in Division I-A football history to have enjoyed 14 straight seasons of 10 or more wins. His Florida State Seminoles finished an unprecedented 14 straight seasons in the top 5 of the Associated Press College Football Poll and won the College Football National Championship in 1993 and 1999.

Coach Bobby Bowden is an icon of college football who ran his legendary, top-ranking program with a trademark southern charm. With his recent retirement, Bowden is ready to give fans and readers the behind-the-scenes story of his 55-year career and the path that helped him become one of college football's most successful coaches and patriarch of the sport's most famous coaching family.

In this book, Bowden will reveal never-before-published details of the moments and events that have defined his life, including:

* The tragic death of his grandson and son-in-law in a 2004 automobile accident.

* The details of his retirement as FSU's coach at the end of the 2009 season.

Foreword Tony Dungy vii

Foreword Joe Paterno x

Chapter 1 Holding the Rope 1

Chapter 2 I Will Serve You 11

Chapter 3 Mother Hen 29

Chapter 4 Finding Direction 41

Chapter 5 Staying the Course 57

Chapter 6 Tested 77

Chapter 7 Thin Ice 91

Chapter 8 Proving Ground 103

Chapter 9 No Place Like Home 119

Chapter 10 Where Is Pablo? 139

Chapter 11 Wide Right 151

Chapter 12 Unseen Eyes 169

Chapter 13 Second Chances 195

Chapter 14 Transfusion 207

Chapter 15 Wire to Wire 219

Chapter 16 Fervent Prayers 243

Chapter 17 The Final Season 255

Acknowledgments 271