“The Miracle”

Okay, so this is a bit of a diversion, or maybe more so a ‘back-tracking’, as I decided to share how I ended up at FSU, and, of course, Coach Bowden’s role in such…

I originally walked on at FSU in the fall of 1977, fresh off of a National Championship at Warner Robins High School. We had THE BIG THREE stars on our team - James Brooks, future NFL Pro-Bowl Running Back, Jimmy Womack, future lead blocker for Herschel Walker at Georgia, and another fellow some of you might have heard of…Ron Simmons (though we called him Ronald in high school). I sort of considered myself THE little fourth, like an appendage or something.

Anyway, Ron was Coach Bowden’s prize recruit, one that Coach would later say was perhaps the most important in FSU history. Well, I’m no dummy, I grabbed onto Ron’s Superman cape and sort of rode it down to Tallahassee, where he strutted in on a lush red carpet, and I more or less fell off and squeezed in through the back door.

Though I had my limitations, even as a squirt I could catch the football with the best of them. I remember diving to catch balls in gravel driveways when playing with the older kids, abhorring the thought of the ball hitting the ground if it was coming to me. And yet, upon arrival at Florida State, it was as if I had brought along a pair of oven mitts, the footballs glancing off my hands like never before. Call it a case of ‘not feeling like I belonged’, I guess.

So I spent one week there feeling sorry for myself, along with an awful homesickness unlike anything I had ever felt, and decided that was quite enough. I packed my bags, called Coach Bowden, and headed to Statesboro, Georgia, to attend Georgia Southern. They did not have a football team at that time. (Coach Bowden did try to talk me out of it, but my mind was made up.)

I think it was October when I decided that I NEEDED to give it another shot. I fiddled around with the idea for a while, agitated as hell, until I knew that I had to do it. Ah, but to write a letter to Coach Bowden and ask if he would allow me to come back…

Now is a good time to let you know where I was living, for this plays a part in “The Miracle”. My dad had been raised WAY BACK in the boonies, outside of the ‘metropolis’ of Portal, Georgia (think no red lights), which is maybe 11 miles from Statesboro, and he still owned a farm that was way outside of Portal, where my grandparents lived. It was off of a long dirt road, which I drove every day into school.

It was from this home that I wrote that letter to Coach Bowden and placed it into an old rusted mailbox on that lonesome dirt road with shaking fingers. I did not expect a reply. Maybe a rebuke, even.

Florida State was having a fantastic year, the best in ages, and my old pal Ron was lighting it up as a freshman. Who kew how long it would be before he even opened my letter.

Here comes “The Miracle”.

I mailed the letter to Bobby Bowden from that old mailbox on a Wednesday afternoon in October, 1977, and and could hardly believe my eyes when I opened that same mailbox and saw an envelope addressed to me from the Florida State football office on Friday. Of the same week! Impossible! My heart was tearing through my chest as I stared at the envelope. Then it hit me. Maybe Coach Bowden couldn’t wait to tell me what a quitter I was so he responded without delay, rushing it to the Post Office himself. I walked the envelope into the house and sat in my granddaddy’s rocking chair and let out a couple of deep breaths. It took me a few seconds to get it open.

It read like this:

Dear Philip,

I would love to welcome you back to Florida State. I believe if you had stayed you would have made this team and probably been playing some for us this season as a back-up.
As it is I would like for you to return for winter workouts in January and then go through spring practice after that. I feel certain that you can earn a scholarship for next fall and be a significant contributor for our team.

Sincerely,

Bobby Bowden
Head Coach
Florida Sate Seminoles

Now, I personally think he was exaggerating a wee bit on that “playing some” part, as Mike Shumann, Roger Overby, Kurt Unglaub and Jackie Flowers were all balling at wide receiver, but I could not deny the expedience with with Coach Bowden had responded, showing that he truly did want me back. I mean, how did he find the time in the midst of the season to respond so quickly to little ole me? Did he ‘bend’ time (some of you are probably wondering)?

Well, whatever he did, it was definitely a sign.

Naw, I have to call it what it was, dadgummit. It was a miracle.