Rest in peace, Coach … Thank you for everything!Clark: Rest in peace, Coach … Thank you for everything!

I don’t even know where to start with this one. So, I’m just going to begin typing and see where it goes.

I first met Bobby Bowden when I was 8 years old. He was speaking at the Atlanta Seminole Booster Club and my dad, a Florida State alum, took his sports-loving, floppy-haired son to the event to hear all about the upcoming 1984 season.

There are two things I remember about that night: Hearing for the first time in my life a roomful of people explode in laughter. Because, you know, Bowden. And then later in the evening, after the speech, my dad telling me to go up to the dais and ask if I could have the cloth sign hanging in front of it that read something like, “1984 Atlanta Seminole Booster Kickoff Dinner.

His point was they aren’t going to use it again. It will probably get thrown away.

My counterpoint was, “Hey man, I’m 8. This seems like more of an adult request.”