ELKHART —

Hard-nosed, tough and rugged are among terms often times used to describe football players and coaches.

Former Florida State University coach Bobby Bowden showed a softer side of the sport when he was the featured speaker Friday morning at the 19th annual Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast at Elkhart Memorial High School.

"I coached for a total of 57 years and witnessed to my players every day," said the 80-year-old who became a Christian at age 23.

"It was not unusual for me to stop practice and take all the players over into the shade and pray with them.

"Florida State is a state school, but I never believed in that separation of church and state stuff. I would rather be spiritually correct than politically correct. God’s laws take priority over man’s laws."

Bowden graduated from Howard College in 1953 and was the head football coach at the school from 1959-62. He was the head coach at West Virginia from 1970-75 and went to Florida State in 1976 where he retired from after last season following a 33-21 win over West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

Bowden guided the FSU Seminoles to national championships in 1993 and 1999.

He is second in all-time wins by Division I coaches with 377.

Bowden explained why he felt he had to be the way he was at Florida State.

"About 80 per cent of the players we got at Florida State had no Daddy," he said. "Those boys needed a male figure in their lives and I told the coaching staff it was up to us to be that male model."

Bowden shared how he put his faith into practice after the tragic death of FSU lineman Pablo Lopez in 2000.

"We had an open Saturday during the season and I gave the players Friday off to go home to spend time with their families," he said. "But some of them lived to far away.

"Pablo was one of them and he went to a party on Saturday night. There was a confrontation and the other man went to get a shotgun. He pointed the gun at Pablo and the last thing Pablo said was ‘You are not going to shoot me.’ Then the guy pulled the trigger.

"I received a telephone call at 2 a.m. about what had happened. By the time I got to the hospital Pablo was dead.

"Some football players had followed Pablo to the hospital and they pitched a fit when they heard the news of his death. They screamed and cried."

Bowden used the Lopez’s death as an example to the rest of the team.

"We had a meeting room that had rows of seats with 11 seats in each row," the coach said. "The first one was for the first team offense, the second for the first team defense and so on. Each player had an assigned seat in their row and if a player was missing I could tell who it was by looking at the row.

"I looked at the players and asked them where Pablo was. He was here yesterday, but he is not here today. I wanted my players concerned about where they would spend eternity.

"One of the assistant coaches Mark Richt came into my office later and asked what I was talking about. I took the Bible off my desk and showed him. He gave his life to Jesus Christ right there and has turned into one of the finest Christian men I know."

According to Bowden it is all about making yourself available to God. He explained by sharing another story.

"Four businessmen were traveling together and were all anxious to get home to see their families. In the airport they came across a young girl selling Bibles. In their rush to get their tickets they knocked over her stand and scattered the Bibles.

"After getting their tickets and starting to board the plane one man turned around and told the others to call his wife and tell her he would be late for dinner because he was catching the next flight. He went back and found the girl who was blind on her hands and knees trying to gather up those Bibles. She was crying and after helping her collect the Bibles he handed her $40. As he turned to walk away the girl said, ‘Sir as you Jesus?’

"That is what I mean by making yourself available."

According to Bowden’s testimony, the Bible is the answer to everything.

"The Bible was written thousands of years ago yet it is just as true today as it was then," he said.

"Our nation has a lot of problems. We are in financial trouble, but even more so moral trouble.

"The Bible is very clear about how nations that obey God are blessed and ones that disobey God are cursed. We have slipped away from the Christian principles this nation was founded on."