Hall of Fame
Max Bowman cut his football teeth at WCC on his way to an illustrious career in football. As a 1969 graduate of Nyack College, he earned a degree in Theology before completing his master’s degree at NYU in Physical Education and Administration.
He joined the Viking’s Football coaching staff in 1972, just a year after the team’s first National Championship. He served both as a coach and an administrator at the college for 7 years. In those 7 seasons, the team won 3 more National Championships and had a 57-16 overall record.
Serving as the Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator, Max’s offense was top in the country each year. In fact, in 6 of the 7 seasons with WCC, the team ranked #1. For the 1977 season, Max took over as Head Coach and led the Vikings to an 11-0 season and a National Championship. For his efforts, he was named the Metropolitan Coach of the Year.
Max also coached Baseball for 4 seasons at Westchester, earning 4 Mid-Hudson Conference Championships and the team compiled a 74-22 overall record. At the same time, he worked in various roles at Westchester including Athletic Director, Financial Aid Director, EOP Director and was a PE instructor as well.
He then moved on to Boston College as the Offensive Line, Tight Ends Coach and Special Teams Coordinator. In is first year the team went from losing 17 games the previous two seasons to a winning club, finishing 7-4 and beating Stanford University who was #2 in the nation at the time, with John Elway as their Quarterback.
In 1982 he joined the staff of University of Texas at El Paso as the Assistant Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Though it had been several years since he left Westchester, Max continued to impact our students as dozens of former Viking players ended up transferring to UTEP with an opportunity to play Football. His recruiting efforts made quite an impact on UTEP, as he successfully brought in 9 future NFL players including All-Pros Seth Joyner, Chris Jackie and Tony Tolbert.
His success at UTEP led him to being offered the Head Coach position at Greenville College. It was an opportunity to start a brand-new NAIA Division II program in 1987. In his 7 years there, he compiled a 49-15-1 record including going 8-1 in his first season without any scholarship players. By the time he finished, his team earned top honors as the #1 Offense in the country as well as boasting the top rusher in the nation in 1991. His teams earned 4 consecutive conference championships. In his 4th season they were in the Division II National Playoff, the first team to do this in 4 years. In 2008 his 1991 team was inducted into the GC Football Hall of Fame.
He also coached in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills as Assistant Head and TE Coach from 1998-2002. His teams went to the playoffs twice and had a record of 29-19 during a 3-season span.
Since his time with the Bills, he was Chief of Staff and Assistant Athletic Director at Rutgers University. During his first year they went 7-4, after 13 losing seasons and was invited to the Insight Bowl. He moved to Houston, Texas and continued to work with young players, coaching at Westfield HS & Houston Christian HS. He is currently the Executive Director of Northwest Houston FCA, working with over 700 coaches and 20,000 student athletes.
He still lives in Houston, where he and his wife Beverly have been married for 54 years and have 2 children. Bev is an accomplished musician and served as a professor of English at several universities. Their daughter Kimberli and her husband Sam live close by. She worked for the NCAA and currently teaches English on the college level. Their son Bryce played football and graduated from West Point. After serving our country, he is now the owner and CEO of his own company. He lives in Chicago with his wife Nicole and 3 wonderful children. Max claims his greatest legacy is his family.
