Listen to Coach Bowden's in-depth interview with SUCCESS contributing editor Don Yaeger here.

Florida State University football Coach Bobby Bowden was in a tough spot. Charlie Ward was his most talented quarterback, but he was having an off night, throwing two interceptions that had put the Seminoles in a deep hole against conference rival Georgia Tech.

On that evening in 1992, Bowden briefly pulled his team leader from the field, sending the backup quarterback into the game. When Bowden signaled for Ward to return, fans jeered. But Bowden knew this was an opportunity to make a difference, both in the life of his struggling player and for his football team.

Ward, FSU’s first African-American starting quarterback, came back into the game in the fourth quarter, his team trailing by two touchdowns. To take advantage of Ward’s athleticism, Bowden made some mid-game changes in the offense. Buoyed by those changes and his coach’s faith, Ward led FSU to three touchdowns in that last quarter and a dramatic 29-24 win. The victory assured FSU of the conference championship.

“That was one of those moments,” Bowden tells SUCCESS, “when you know that your choice will make a difference in a lot of ways. I can’t tell you I thought it would turn out as it did, but it did turn out pretty well.”

With more than five decades’ experience as a coach, Bowden has sought to build leaders on and off the field. Without question, he says, his commitment to making a difference in the lives of each athlete contributes to his desire to show up each fall as leader of one of America’s preeminent football programs.

Even as he turns 80 in November, an age when most of his peers are enjoying retirement, Bowden’s passion for building young leaders burns as strong as his competitive spirit.

Lifetime Achievement

As the 2009 college football season opened and SUCCESS headed to press, Bowden had 382 career victories, one less than his colleague and friend, Joe Paterno of Penn State, in the race for the NCAA’s all-time Division I wins record.

On most Saturdays in autumn, Bowden tells reporters he doesn’t pay attention to whether Paterno’s team wins or loses—not much, at least. “You don’t want to admit it,” he says, smiling sheepishly, “but I do catch myself keeping up and striving to end up with the record because you’d like to leave something for your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, something they can say like, ‘Look, my granddaddy was this’ or ‘my great-granddaddy was this.’ ”

No matter what happens, Bowden’s and Paterno’s win totals won’t be equaled for a long time, if ever. Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, who will be 63 in October, ranks third among active coaches with 219 victories, 163 behind Bowden.

The Alabama-born Bowden has served as head coach at four schools: South Georgia, a two-year school; Howard, now Samford University, and Bowden’s alma mater; West Virginia, and FSU.

Married to his high-school sweetheart, Ann, in 1949, the couple has six children, including sons Tommy and Terry, former head coaches at Clemson and Auburn, respectively, and son Jeff, who was offensive coordinator at FSU.

Bowden and Paterno are among only four active coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. If 82-year-old Paterno ends up the record holder, Bowden says “that’s good because it couldn’t go to a better guy than Joe Paterno.” But Bowden admits the competition with Paterno is motivating: “You’d like to keep winning; you’d like to stay in the fight. You’d like to have the record.”

Bowden knows a little something about records, and how big dreams can lead to huge payoffs. He acknowledges that some of FSU’s records might’ve seemed illogical if they were included on any list of goals. “I want as a goal to win the conference and be in the running for a national championship every year. Could I have ever set as a goal that we’d have all those years at the top of the polls? No way. Nobody could have thought that was possible.”

That was a run like no college football team has ever had. From 1987 to 2000, FSU registered an NCAA-record 14 consecutive Top-5 finishes i n t h e Associated P r e s s poll and an astonishing 152 victories. Though wins have been harder to come by in recent years, Bowden is determined to drive the Seminoles back into the national spotlight.

Sowing the Seeds

Entering his 34th season at FSU, Bowden remains confident he has a solid plan in place for the Seminoles. He believes the team’s recruiting classes have been steadily improving and the Seminoles’ efforts last season are good signs.

Bowden admits the all-time win record is important, but it’s not the only reason he keeps coaching. “That drives you but all of that is secondary… I desire to coach and work with these young men,” he says. “And I think the key is I haven’t gotten tired of recruiting. The thing that drives most coaches out of coaching in college is they get tired of the grind of recruiting.”

Bowden knows very well that the seeds of those championship seasons may be sown in conversations in a recruit’s living room, and they’re nurtured along the way as these young players are empowered and grow into leaders.

Back in 1992, when FSU was losing to Georgia Tech, Bowden says “allowing Charlie to take control of that team even when things weren’t going well really allowed him to grow and it allowed the other players to grow. This game is won on the field, so we needed his growth to make the whole team more successful.”

Charlie Ward went on to win the Heisman Trophy the next season and lead FSU to its first-ever national championship. A point guard on the university’s basketball team, he chose an NBA career over playing in the NFL, and was a first-round pick of the New York Knicks. After retiring from the NBA, he became a high school coach in Houston. Ward has sought to instill lessons he learned from Bowden in his own players.

“When Coach Bowden took that chance at Georgia Tech, it gave me the confidence I needed,” Ward says. “If he had decided to keep me on the bench—and I couldn’t have argued, given how I was playing—I doubt that I would have been the same quarterback I became. Coaches have the chance to shape people in moments like that and he definitely changed my future.”

Read more about how Coach Bowden developed his winning strategies here.

Listen to Coach Bowden's in-depth interview with SUCCESS contributing editor Don Yaeger here.