Almost Heaven: How Bobby Bowden's Ten Years at West Virginia University Helped Him Become One of the Winningest Coaches in College Football History

Before assembling 40 winning campaigns as head coach of the Florida State Seminoles, Bobby Bowden served as head coach of the West Virginia University Mountaineers for six seasons. Although he logged five winning seasons in Morgantown and had an overall record of 42-26, Bowden's tenure was contentious, and embarrassing losses to archrivals like Pitt earned him the hostility of many fans. Set against the backdrop of a changing NCAA and the social politics of the era, sports journalist John Antonik covers Bowden's entire WVU tenure from 1966-75. He employs an impressive array of primary sources, from newspaper articles and WVU recruiting documents to an extensive collection of interviews with former players, assistants, staffers, sports reporters, and Bowden himself. Almost Heaven shows how Bowden's time coaching the Mountaineers was very much one of growth and development, paving the way to the unchallenged dominance he would go on to display with Florida State.