Bobby Bowden’s wife offers encouraging update about legendary Florida State coach
By Keith Farner
Published:
Bobby Bowden is in the clear following a couple unrelated visits to the hospital.
Jim Henry of The Tallahassee Democrat reported that he had a conversation with Ann Bowden, and the former coach is home after he was recently hospitalized with COVID-19 following an unrelated leg infection.
Bowden, who turns 91 next month, was released from Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Thursday and will continue his recovery from home. Bowden was hospitalized for 10 days undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
“We are all happy,” wife Ann Bowden told the Democrat Thursday. “I just want to see him get back to his normal self. We are grateful to have him home. Bobby is thankful for all the thoughts and prayers. Now we just need to get him stronger.”
When asked about his ordeal, he told the Democrat Tuesday, “Stay away from it, don’t test it because it’s no fun. No. 1 for me was a loss of appetite. I didn’t want to eat anything. But now I have my hunger back and feeling pretty good.”
His birthday is Nov. 8, and Bowden otherwise has enjoyed retirement since coaching his final game 10 years ago in the Gator Bowl, a 33-21 victory over West Virginia. Before his recent hospitalizations, he played golf regularly, and until recently has had few health scares. In 2018, he was hospitalized over Thanksgiving with pneumonia.
Last year, he dealt with hip/leg pain that doctors believed was nothing serious, although it prevented him from playing golf.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.