FOLLOWING THROUGH

When Bobby Bowden recruited Charlie Ward from Thomasville, Georgia, in 1988, he told Ward exactly what he was looking for: a quarterback. To that point, there had never been a Black QB in program history. But Bowden wasn’t focused on race, only the best available player. Ward broke the QB color barrier in his freshman 1989 season during a blowout win over Tulane. “I never even thought about it (color) when Charlie went into the game,” Bowden said. Ward took over as starter in the 1992 campaign, and under Bowden’s guidance became the first Seminole to win the Heisman Trophy in 1993. The duo also brought FSU its first National Championship that season. “[Bowden] gave me an opportunity. A lot of people told me as a Black quarterback that coach Bowden wouldn’t allow me to play quarterback because that didn’t happen before,” Ward said following the coach’s passing in 2021. “He told me if I was patient and waited my turn, that I would have an opportunity to play quarterback and that’s what he told me while he was recruiting me, then he actually followed through.”