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.

The Bowdens are the First Family of college football. Bobby, the father, built the winningest program of the decade at Florida State. Son Terry took over an Auburn team on probation and led it back into the top tier of the sport. Son Tommy is Auburn's offensive coordinator and will likely get his own program in the next few seasons. Son Jeff, now coaching Florida State receivers, will earn his own head coaching opportunity one day. So will the boys' brother-in-law Jack Hines - who played for Bobby, married his oldest daughter, Robyn, and now coaches with Terry at Auburn. Reading this book is like accepting an exclusive invitation to a Bowden family gathering, where discussions range from informal debates about the best winning strategy to disarmingly candid appraisals of the racial undercurrents of college athletics. Listen to inside stories of key moments in Games of the Century, of the recruiting and coaching of famous athletes such as Deion Sanders and Charlie Ward. Hear how it feels to be trapped inside a locker room with angry fans pounding on the door, to be the son of a coach hanged in effigy, to have to choose between the interests of a troubled young athlete and the image of a football program. Learn, with the Bowdens, the lessons of careers measured in clock ticks and place-kicks.

Now a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell. This riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city.In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School--one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win--until he saw Tony Nathan run. But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school--and the city. And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds's football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game. In 1974, Coach Gerelds's interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.

As head football coach at Florida State, Bobby Bowden has won two national championships and compiled an astounding resume of all-time credentials. Filled with personal anecdotes, famous names, and fascinating stories, The Bowden Way promises to be the leadership book that will redefine the game. With lessons from his years of coaching, this book puts readers inside the mind of a legend in modern sports.

With more than 60 million athletes involved in sports in America, it is estimated that one coach will impact more people in one year than the average person does in a lifetime. Today's coach could be one of the greatest authoritative figures in the life of today's adolescent. So the question isn't whether coaches leave a legacy, but rather, what will that legacy be?

Current trending research shows that only 15% of coaches are intentional about coaching beyond the skills and strategies of the game (1st Dimension). A 3-Dimensional Coach understands and harnesses the power of the coaching platform to coach the mind (2nd Dimension) and transform the heart (3rd Dimension). They can be the catalysts for internal transformation that guides both the coach and the athlete on a spiritual journey to finding purpose in our performance-based culture.

Now that's a legacy

In "3D Coach," National Coaches Training Director Jeff Duke shares his own journey through the three dimensions of coaching and how it has impacted his life and those around him. He also shares the personal stories of coaches from all levels who have implemented the 3D concept into their own programs and who have pointed to Jesus Christ, the Master Coach, as the ultimate example of how to lead athletes to true significance.

The Wisdom of Walk-Ons tells the true stories of three unrecruited college football players who-against overwhelming odds-played for some of the greatest programs and Hall of Fame coaches in history: the Alabama Crimson Tide with Paul "Bear" Bryant, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish with Dan Devine, and the Southern California Trojans with John Robinson. Former walk-ons Gordon Adams, Bob Bleyer, and Alan Pizzitola graduated from these storied universities in the 1970s and '80s with academic honors, national championship rings, practical skills, and a collection of winning strategies that helped them persevere and succeed in business and life in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. All of us can apply this walk-on wisdom and become more successful and fulfilled in our professional and personal lives.