Glory days: Altmire recalls his season with FSU football coach Bobby Bowden

Legendary Florida State University (FSU) football coach Bobby Bowden likes the little people, including Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.).

During a tribute to him on the floor this week, Altmire noted he played two decades ago for Bowden, who retired Tuesday.

“I occupied, perhaps, the lowest possible position on the team,” Altmire said on the House floor, “yet Coach Bowden treated me and every player with respect.”

Altmire walked on to the FSU football team as a junior in the spring of 1988, still recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that hampered his once-promising football career.

He made the Seminoles practice team, and during the next 12 months, Bowden “left an indelible mark” on him.

“I was a wide receiver,” Altmire told ITK, “and I played on the Seminoles practice squad through the spring, summer and fall of the ’88-89 season, the first year we won the Sugar Bowl championship.”

Bowden, he said, never failed to ask about a player’s schoolwork, family, hometown or some other personal detail.

“The team had amazing players that year, and as a receiver I got to work against [cornerback] Deion Sanders, who’s one of the greatest athletes of all time.”

The season ended abruptly for Altmire. In December of 1988 he tore the ACL in his other knee, ending his brief run as a Seminole baller.

Altmire last saw Bowden in early 2000 “at a White House ceremony, where [Bowden] was being honored.”

“I reintroduced myself, and I’m thinking, ‘Of course he doesn’t remember me,’” Altmire recalled, “but I said hi, and that I played for him in ’88.

Without missing a beat, he patted my arm and said, ‘Has it really been that long?’ ”

Altmire smiled, “That’s the kind of guy he is — he always makes you feel comfortable.”

---