Who's Taking Over...

Once Bobby B. is gone? I hope the escort does not have an AARP membership.

Guard remains on watch for Florida State's Bowden
Thursday, December 31, 2009
By Colin Dunlap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Phil Coale/Associated Press
Billy Smith, right, a retired Florida Highway Patrol officer, watches the crowd as Florida State coach Bobby Bowden gives an interview following a home game earlier this season.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The vetting system is simple for the bushel loads of mail delivered to Florida State coach Bobby Bowden at his office.

His secretary, Sue Hall, opens up each piece.

The not-so-nice stuff gets dumped directly in the can. The good stuff gets passed along to the boss.

In November 1986, in the week leading up to a game at South Carolina, correspondence was delivered to Bowden's office that didn't fit either category. It was scary.

The postmark was Pittsburgh and the gist of the letter was straightforward: A man, who didn't sign his name or leave a return address, lost a big wager on the Seminoles the week before and he was going to kill Bowden during Florida State's trip to South Carolina.

Billy Smith wouldn't let that happen.

No, never, not a chance.

This is the story of Bobby the ball coach and Billy the bodyguard -- one who relishes the spotlight always hoping for the best to happen, the other who stands nearby in his shadow, ready to react if the worst happens.

Bowden, 80, is easy to spot as the guy out in front of the Florida State program. He has been the coach since 1976 and is set to retire after tomorrow's Gator Bowl.

Smith, 78, is easy to spot, too. He's the no-nonsense guy standing about 6 feet 3, wearing a Florida Highway Patrol uniform complete with shimmering black shoes and a loaded sidearm that Bowden jokes, "has just one bullet in it, so he's got to make it count."

It has been that way since Bowden took the Florida State job. Smith -- who retired in 1985 and is left with this lone detail -- has been providing personal security throughout the coach's tenure.

With eyes rivaled in sharpness only by the creases on his pants, Smith watches over Bowden's every move, never strays too far from him, walks out of the tunnel with him in lockstep, is within arm's reach on the sideline and even hawks over the media interview sessions.

"Someone might think, 'why are they doing that, they are doing it for show?' " Bowden said. "No we don't, there's a reason. I've come off the field and have had somebody take a swing at me before."

A swing is one thing. That letter from Pittsburgh was quite another.

It was the one time Smith -- who, like Bowden, speaks with an engaging drawl -- knew he had to step from the shadows and act.

So in the days leading up to that trip to South Carolina in '86, Smith made a few calls in case that guy from Pittsburgh really did show up.

"Got together some people and there were 132 law enforcement officers, 20 in plainclothes there," Smith said. "As you go through life, there are some weird folks out there who do some strange and mysterious things. You just have to do your best to prepare for them."

Recalling the gauntlet he walked through that night after the South Carolina game on the way to the bus still moves Bowden.

There have been special games for the coach who has 388 career victories, but what his old buddy did for him that day -- and in some regard has done, quietly, every day -- is as big as any winning touchdown.

"I will never forget coming out of the dressing room after the game and it looked like 1,000 highway patrolmen in a line down through there," said an obviously moved Bowden. "And he had them lined up to make sure I got to the bus OK."

Smith shrugs off corralling all those officers -- it was just his duty, he says.

Nothing happened that day in South Carolina, just like there has never been a breach of security harmful to Bowden under Smith's watch in 34 seasons.

Smith wants that streak to continue for one more game.

And then after that, everyone knows what will be become of the ball coach, but what will become of the ball coach's bodyguard?

"That's something [coach in waiting] Jimbo Fisher and I will sit down and talk about after the Gator Bowl," Smith said. "After things slow down, we get back to Tallahassee and we figure out where we're all at."




http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09365/1024766-144.stm

Maybe he is staying

Once Bobby B. is gone? I hope the escort does not have an AARP membership.

It won't be Smith. He "retires" along with Bowden. My money is on Bagnardi; He's been a part of the detail for a while now.

Once Bobby B. is gone? I hope the escort does not have an AARP membership.

It won't be Smith. He "retires" along with Bowden. My money is on Bagnardi; He's been a part of the detail for a while now.

Ahh yes, Mr. "I will wear my Class A" despite everyone else in Class B...to show our uniformity on the field.

On a side note, although some people may have seen this before-this is a good video of how to act (not act? )on the sidelines when doing coach security for the other team...courtesy of Gerogia Troopers. :D

[youtube:sye6y7f2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKNTu-EssjU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube:sye6y7f2]

YOU GUYS ARE ALL WRONG. THIS GUY WANTS TO STICK AROUND SOME MORE. JIMBO RETOOLED HIS WHOLE STAFF. TIME TO SHOW ANOTHER OLD CODGER THE DOOR LIKE HE DID SAINT BOBBY :snicker:



orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/seminoles/os-fsu-leaving-1228-20091227,0,4825483.story

OrlandoSentinel.com
For Billy Smith, serving as Bobby Bowden's bodyguard has been a privilege
Andrew CarterOrlando Sentinel

December 27, 2009


JACKSONVILLE — Billy Smith has been by Bobby Bowden's side after national championship victories and after national championship losses. He was there for Bowden's first game at Florida State and on Friday he will be here for Bowden's last game – walking beside him onto the field at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, where FSU will meet West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

There's a good chance that anyone who has watched a Florida State game during the past 34 years has seen Smith on the Seminoles' sideline or walking with Bowden on and off the field. He's the white-haired man, dressed in a Florida Highway Patrolman's uniform, who has served as Bowden's personal bodyguard throughout his 34 years here.

Smith is also representative of the change that Bowden's retirement will bring. Though he might return for one more season to serve in the same role for Jimbo Fisher, FSU's head coach to be, there's a good chance that Smith's final game will come Friday.

The Gator Bowl, then, not only represents a farewell to Bowden, defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews and three other FSU assistant coaches. It's also a farewell to behind-the-scenes folks who have served FSU's football program for decades. Folks like Sue Hall, who has been Bowden's secretary, he said, for 24 years. And Smith, if he leaves.

"It's amazing," Bowden said about Smith. "The only times that we didn't hit in the field together is when he was sick. He might have had a couple of [games] he missed … pretty dadgum dedicated. He does a great job."

Especially so given Smith's salary, which is nonexistent. Smith, who worked for the Florida Highway Patrol from 1953 until his retirement in 1985, began to serve as a bodyguard for Florida State football coaches during the Bill Peterson era in the mid-1960's. Smith, 78, likes to tell a story about how they determined how much money he'd make off the gig: Start him at zero and double his salary every year.

"So they have done that," Smith said, laughing.

Of course, the experience hasn't been about the money.

About his position, which Smith describes as "volunteer" work, Smith said, "I could not have asked or had the privilege of being around anyone who has more integrity, more quality than coach Bowden has. And to me, it's been a job, but it's also been a pleasure."

And now Smith is one of many who have been associated with the program who is attempting to figure his next move. Andrews, of course, is retiring. Jody Allen, Chuck Amato and Dexter Carter, the three assistant coaches whom Fisher isn't retaining, are likely to attempt to find new coaching positions. Hall, a near constant presence in the FSU football offices for most of the past quarter century, will be leaving.

And Smith is wondering if he'll again jog out of the tunnel at Doak Campbell Stadium, his highway patrolmen's uniform on, an FSU head coach by his side.

"I don't know how to answer that," Smith said, pondering his future. "Jimbo and I, we have talked. And we're going to get together after the bowl game and just sit down and talk … I've got the feeling I'd probably like to stay one more year and finish out one year with Jimbo. He and coach Bowden are totally opposite.

"Coach Bowden's a pretty well laid back individual. Jimbo is pretty wild."


Copyright © 2010, Orlando Sentinel

Billy Smith still around this season?