Alabama football fans who give the Louisiana-Monroe football program much thought focus on the 2007 game. Charlie Weatherbie brought the Warhawks to Tuscaloosa and they beat Nick Saban’s first team.
There is another, more interesting story, not about the ULM program, but its current coach.
Terry Bowden will be on the ULM sideline when Alabama Football hosts the Warhawks Saturday afternoon. Bowden, having grown up with football, has been on many sidelines going back to when his dad coached Florida State.
Bobby Bowden’s three sons all became college football coaches. Terry is the middle son and his story is an interesting one.
Before Bobby Bowden built Florida State into a football powerhouse, he was the head coach at West Virginia. Bobby spent 10 seasons coaching at West Virginia, the last six as the head coach. Bobby Bowden and Nick Saban went way back through West Virginia connections. Though not close in age, the two men developed a close bond. But that is a different story for some other time.
Terry Bowden began his head coaching career at Division II, Salem University in 1983. After three seasons, he moved to Samford, in 1987 and coached there for six seasons. In 1993, he succeeded Pat Dye at Auburn.
Bowden went on to be Auburn’s head coach for five seasons and six games during his last season in 1998. Bowden took over at Auburn after Dye had managed just five wins in each of his last two seasons.
Bowden followed an Alabama Football National Championship
Auburn was undefeated under Bowden in 1993 (11-0) and won its first nine games of the 1994 season. In his last three full seasons on the Plains, Auburn won eight, eight and ten games. He was 47-17-1 at Auburn, but that was not good enough.
What happened between Bowden and decision-makers at Auburn? In 1998, George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel summed it up.
"Bowden was hired as a fill-in guy to get the team through a probationary period of NCAA sanctions but thwarted the Machiavellian plan with an unanticipated run of success."
There is more to the Bowden-Auburn saga. For those who believe Auburn mastered false indignation with its recruitment of Cam Newton, it goes farther back. In 2016, Matt Hayes did a good job explaining it.
According to Bowden in his first week at Auburn, an assistant coach provided the details on weekly pay to players.
"‘I saw the names, saw the money, saw the way players were recruited and what they were paid.’Bowden told the assistant coach, ‘Pay off the players that were promised and never do it again.’"
Bowden contends his refusal to do things the Auburn way immediately made influential Auburn people his enemies.
Terry Bowden paid a heavy price after leaving Auburn. It was more than a decade before he became a head coach again, at Division II, North Alabama.
Like ULM, Terry Bowden has a history of beating Alabama Football. His teams won three Iron Bowls in 1993, 1995 and 1997. ULM and Bowden will not get another one on Saturday.