Shane Beamer penned 100 handwritten letters to head coaches every summer when he was seeking his first graduate assistant job. He’d get 10 responses — most a prewritten notice letting him know they would keep his resume on file.
Florida State coach Bobby Bowden always sent a handwritten letter back.
“I would get one or two handwritten letters, and it was always Coach Bowden, which I always appreciated,” Beamer said.
Bowden’s son, Terry Bowden, recently shared that the Hall of Fame college football coach has pancreatic cancer.
“I’ve always tried to serve God’s purpose for my life, on and off the field, and I am prepared for what is to come,” Bobby Bowden said in a statement.
Bowden, 91, won 377 games as a head coach, the second-most in Division I history. He won two national championships in his 34 seasons at Florida State, in 1993 and 1999.
Beamer remembers Bowden’s 1999 national championship all too well. He was a long snapper for Virginia Tech when the Hokies lost the title game to Bowden’s FSU Seminoles, 46-29.
“Obviously, the national championship game was something I still haven’t gotten over and never will,” Beamer said. “It was tough to lose, but (I have) so much respect for him.”
Beamer said it wasn’t easy to break into coaching in the late 1990s — there were limited GA positions compared to the present.
While he never worked for Bowden, Beamer expressed appreciation for the letters he received from him.
“He didn’t have to do that,” Beamer said. “From talking to a lot of people, it wasn’t just me because my dad was Frank Beamer. He knew who I was, but he was doing that with everybody.”