My column from the Bowden/Saban banquet

BIRMINGHAM _ We all get phone calls that are impossible to forget.

Too often they're associated with great tragedy, and not enough with the exact opposite. University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban remembers one in particular back in 1973, shortly after his father died when he was a graduate assistant at Kent State.

"This is Bobby Bowden," said the voice talking from West Virginia University, located roughly 25 minutes away from where Saban had grown up. The head football coach had known Saban's father, knew that his mother was having a bit of a tough time and offered more than just condolences.

"If you need to come home, if you want to be a coach, I'll create a graduate assistant position for you so you can do what you need to and be around your mother," Saban recalled Bowden saying.

He's told that story numerous times lately, and again Sunday, which was a special night for Birmingham. Not only had one of its proud sons returned home to be honored when the Over the Mountain Touchdown Club's inaugural coach of the year award was named in Bowden's honor, but the first recipient was that kid he called nearly 37 years ago.

"His rise in coaching is just unsurpassed," Bowden said before a packed room at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center. "This is a no-brainer who this should go to. Nick I think you ran into the same problem I did with the Bear Bryant Award. You come in second?

"We won the national championship in '93 and I went down there for the Bear Bryant Award which I never got, and some guy named Terry Bowden got it. I can't stand him."

The laughter aside, it's difficult not to see the parallels between the man who is a college football legend, arguably one of the top five coaches in the sport's history, and the one who is currently solidifying his legacy at the Capstone. Besides the obvious tie to West Virginia, both have won two national championships and soon Saban too will have a statue of him standing in front of his home stadium.

It also wouldn't be surprising to see Bowden in Bryant-Denny next season, maybe when Joe Paterno and Penn State come calling (how fitting would that be?). The former quarterback at Woodlawn High, who initially enrolled at Alabama and dreamed of playing for the Crimson Tide still holds these parts close to his heart and frequently visits.

"There's nothing you can do better to me than to have your hometown name an award after you," Bowden said. "I've very thankful, appreciative for that."

Although he won't be on the Florida State sideline for the first time in 35 years, where Saban protégé Jimbo Fisher has taken over, that doesn't mean Bowden plans to slow down in retirement. He flew in for the banquet from Baton Rouge, where he was speaking at the Louisiana High School Coaches Association. Last week the 80-year-old was reportedly in Rio de Janeiro talking to insurance salesmen, and before that Hawaii. He joked about recently playing golf with Florida's Urban Meyer and not knowing what was going on with any spring practices. That's why, in part, Bowden meant it when he said he's not missing coaching and all that went into it.

"I tell you, everything's changed so much from when I started, we had nothing," he said about first arriving at Florida State in 1976, the Seminoles nothing like the program that would make the top five final rankings in an unprecedented 14 consecutive seasons. At the time, it was $500,000 in debt, fans weren't attending games and he had to sell FSU football to everyone.

In addition to recruits, Bowden set up a speaking tour throughout the state of Florida to raise money and continually worked the media. In contrast, and perhaps a perfect testament to how the game really has changed, Saban arrived to Sunday's banquet in a helicopter.

"There could be no greater award for me to receive than one that has Coach Bowden's name on it, because of not only his accomplishments, it's not always what you did it's more important how you are," Saban said. "There's no one our profession, or anyone I know as a person, I have more respect for than Bobby Bowden."

He then left the banquet a little early to attend a team meeting with players reporting back from spring break, while Bowden returned to the podium. Before Saban could get out the door, though, a fan yelled out: "We'll see you here again next year, coach."

He stopped and grinned, "I heard that."

(Here's the link: http://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1065931)