The Tying of Two Bowes

Namesake is a term used to characterize a person, place or thing that has the same, or similar name to another. In this case, legendary University of New Hampshire football coach Bill Bowes' namesake is in fact, another Bill Bowes, the UNH women's hockey assistant coach.

Unrelated completely, the two UNH coaches from different sport teams finally had the chance to meet in Durham on September 10^th at the University's first home football game and brand new stadium opener.

The original (for lack of a better term) Bill Bowes was named to the 2016 College football Hall of Fame Class by the National Football Foundation. He is the first member of the UNH program ever to be selected in the Hall. Bowes coached UNH football for 27 seasons and left a memorable legacy.

He retired as the all-time winningest coach in the Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10 history with a record of 175-106-5 and a total of seven Coach of the Year awards. Current head coach Sean McDonnell, who was recruited by and played for and coached with Coach Bowes, even initiated a Bill Bowes award, an annual honor presented to a UNH football senior.

On the other end of the spectrum with another impressive career is the "new" Bill Bowes. A native of Auburn, Mass. Bowes joined the women's hockey team as an assistant in July of 2014, after years of coaching (both head and assistant) at schools such as Assumption College, Worcester Academy, Holy Cross, and Castleton State College.

"I couldn't pass it up. It was too good an opportunity to be here, be at a Division I school and a place like UNH, with such great history. It was a great opportunity to help build this program back to where it can be, so I like that challenge," said hockey's Bowes.

"I'm so happy to have him as part of our team," said UNH head women's hockey coach Hilary Witt. "Hopefully we can have a similar kind of success building our program up (as the other coach Bowes)."

Not fully understanding the legend of the football coach before he got to UNH as an assistant, hockey Bill Bowes got the chance to meet the New Hampshire coaching celebrity at football's stadium opener. He had been strategizing for quite some time to gain the opportunity.

At the time of the first home game, the legendary football Bowes was in attendance to be honored for his induction into the Hall of Fame. Hockey Bill Bowes also made it a point to attend that game, just in time after returning from a trip.

"I knew he was being honored at halftime that day and I was on a recruiting trip, but I knew I could get back here for about six o'clock," Bowes said. "I knew he'd be here and I wanted to get a chance to meet him."

He was on a mission.

"When Bill sets his mind to something, he gets it done," said Hilary Witt. Traveling back from Ontario and making it in time for the stadium opener to start was Bowes' time crunching task.

Bowes then found the football coach at the game.

"I saw him being honored at half time then I had to track him down, I didn't know where he went," the hockey coach said. "I had my wife with me so I went right over and I said, 'Pardon me, I'm sorry to get in your way while you're watching the game, but I wanted to introduce myself to you.' I said, 'My name's Bill Bowes', and he just looked at me and smiled."

"They told me about you," said football's Bowes.

"I don't believe I'm related to you but I really wanted to meet you and congratulate you on such a great honor you had today," said hockey's Bowes to football Bowes.

The legendary football coach later said, "I read his name in the paper, so I had heard of him too, I was in the stands and he came up to me."

After a few minutes of chatting and finally meeting one another, the two Bowes' parted ways. The football coach continued to watch a program he built so well shine that night, and the hockey coach continued watching the game as well.

Ironically, it was not the first time Bill Bowes from Auburn, Mass., met UNH football coach Bill Bowes. The hockey coach's father, also Bill Bowes, once had the opportunity to work as an official at a UMASS-UNH football game where he worked the 30-second clock and at the time he was introduced to the UNH coach.

While hockey's Bill Bowes is a relative newcomer at UNH in his third season with the hockey team, he, too, like his namesake, has made a name for himself in the coaching world.

"Bill comes from a large family that is well known in the Auburn and surrounding community," said Mike Pickett, one of the coach's good friends and a member of the 1977 Auburn High School Athletic Hall of Fame. "He has dedicated his life to servicing the community in one capacity or another. He is a consummate professional that is focused on teaching people about ice hockey as a career. He is very well known in the hockey community as a coach and as a recruiter. . . . He is a man of very high integrity that gives his all towards his objectives, which are ultimately geared to helping people improve in all aspects of life."

Back at UNH, having two coaches, although at different times, with the same name, has sometimes gotten a little sticky.

The hockey coach says, "When I first started here all my financial paycheck data went to him. So we had to fix that right away."

"There's been a lot of confusion when people ask about us. Another reason why I knew about him was when I was working at (Phillips) Exeter hockey school, all the staff knew people that ran Wentworth by the Sea golf course," Bowes said.

"I called for a tee time, and they said, 'Oh we're full today.' I replied with 'Oh, that's disappointing." And they said, 'Well, who is this?' And I told them I was Bill Bowes in which they quickly replied, 'Oh I think we can sneak you right in at 12:15 Bill.' So I got over there and the guy just laughed when he saw me because he was expecting to sneak in the legend Bill Bowes, the UNH football coach. They chuckled that it was me who showed up," the not-as-legendary Bowes – who is also much shorter than the football coach - admitted with a grin.

The two Bowes' believe it's not something people often run into, even after all their years of coaching, an interesting situation for sure.

Both Bowes' and their successful (and in-progress) coaching careers have run into situations where they've had some explaining to do. UNH's Hall of Famer football coach and UNH's assistant women's hockey coach finally had their chance to meet and tie together the mystery of two Bowes'.

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