- July 22, 2026
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Wally Hunter asked Butch Hughes, Mike Van Serke and Bob Bowling to join him at a diner in Palmetto one morning before the 1993 high school football season.
Some introductions were in order.
Bowling had just moved to the area from Mexia, Texas, and was the new offensive coordinator for Hunter, who was the head coach for Palmetto High football at the time. Van Serke and Hughes served as the defensive coordinator and boys basketball coach, respectively.
Each of them told the waitress what they wanted for breakfast. Bowling went last, submitting an unusual order of double bacon, home fries and 12 eggs.
“We're all like, ‘Is he serious or what?’ Well, he was serious,” Hunter said. “But of course, he got a laugh, and if you knew him, he was just a funny man.”
That’s how Hunter's connection to Bowling began — with laughter. As their friendship blossomed, he grew to appreciate much more than that sense of humor.
Bowling, who went on to become the first athletic director in the history of Braden River High School, died July 4 at 78 years old. He had battled Merkel cell carcinoma since February.
His career in high school athletics spanned 41 years as a football/baseball coach and athletic director. Along that decades-long journey, he worked at nine different high schools across Florida and Texas, but spent the most time at Palmetto from 1993-2004.
Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Manatee High School Hall of Honor following his 2014 induction into the Hall of Fame at Braden River High.
Former Boys Basketball Coach Matt Nesser was the only Pirates coach to start at the school with Bowling in 2005 and he was still there at Bowling's retirement in 2014.
Nesser succeeded Bowling as athletic director. To this day, he remains in that role. They saw each other mere days before Bowling’s death, resulting in a 90-minute conversation.
“He was an unbelievable guy,” Nesser said. “He was stern, as far as when he needed to be, but he showed a lot of heart and compassion to the student-athletes. People 20 years from now will remember him for that.”
Bowling was in middle school when he realized coaching was the profession he wanted to pursue. He loved competition even before attending Manatee, where he was the starting quarterback for two seasons before graduating in 1966.
To him, coaching wasn’t about trying to obliterate opponents. He relished the process of finding ways to outsmart them — thoughtfully, methodically dissecting defenses.
He got his start at Miami Edison High as a football/baseball coach from 1973-75 and eventually landed at Mexia High in Texas, where he coached from 1984-92 before returning to Florida. No matter where he coached, he had the same goal.
“He never got caught up in wins and losses. He got caught up in, really, just making people better,” said Matt Bowling, the youngest of Bob Bowling’s three children. “That was something that he always tried to do. Everything he touched, he wanted to leave it better than he found it.”
Matt Bowling, who has served as Manatee’s athletic director since 2021, never felt a fatherly push into coaching or athletic administration. His father wanted him to choose his own path.
But something his father did proved to Matt Bowling that athletics was where he was meant to be.
Before the 1999 season, when Bob Bowling was the Palmetto football coach, then-rising senior linebacker Ashley Dawes was paralyzed in a car accident.
“(I watched) him become a father to a young man whose life had changed, and he never once wavered,” said Matt Bowling. “He never once was like, ‘Well, you no longer can play for me. Wish you the best.’ It wasn't like that. He was there every step of the way with him.”
When Bowling wasn’t dedicating time to student-athletes, he dedicated himself to his wife, Elaine Bowling, and sons, Rob, Casey and Matt Bowling throughout their childhood.
Golf was his lifelong passion. Almost every Saturday, he hit the links with a group of 24 guys — of which Hunter was a member. The two remained close well after their respective careers took them in different directions.
Hunter retired in April 2012. The following Sunday, Bob Bowling surprised him with a trip to Augusta, Georgia, for the Masters Tournament and didn’t let him pay a dime.
“I have lifetime memories from that trip,” Hunter said. “That was his way to say, ‘Hey, let's celebrate your retirement.’ It was just amazing.”
It was through his love for golf that Bowling developed a hobby-turned-obsession. While others might paint or bake in their free time, he mowed.
The front yard of his Mill Creek home, as former fellow resident Paul Maechtle recalled, was “meticulously kept” — a green fit for Augusta National Golf Club.
“He used to always say that mowing the grass was the one place where he couldn't hear the phone ring,” said Matt Bowling. “It was his escape… It was his way just to decompress about what the day threw at him.”
Matt Bowling grew up with a father who was demanding and disciplined. On and off the field, Bob Bowling ran a tight ship, with a belief that things should be done the right way the first time.
Sometimes that showed in how he pushed his players. Sometimes it showed on Thursdays, when the ever-problematic paint machine tested his patience as he prepared the field for game day.
When Matt Bowling had children of his own — Lily, Easton and Charlotte — he saw a side of his father he had never seen growing up. It’s something he’ll never forget about him.
“Seeing a man who I kind of feared, to be honest, become soft and become a loving grandfather,” Bowling said. “There was no question that my dad loved me, but seeing the way he was with his grandchildren… seeing him become that different person is a memory that I will cherish my entire life.”
