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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Dr. Louis Bowers
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Home Phone: 813-985-1476 Dr. Louis E. Bowers 6205 Quiet Waters Place University of South Florida (Retired) Year of Graduation: 1958 DR. LOUIS BOWERS Louis Bowers attended Buras High School from 1950-54 where he lettered for four years in football, basketball, track and baseball and played American Legion Baseball each summer. Bowers set the Plaquemines Parish Mile-Run Championship record each of his four years of high school. It was through track that he was introduced Southwestern Louisiana Institute when his Buras High Track Team competed in the Southwestern Relays held in McNaspy Stadium. After experiencing the hospitality of the campus, along with its� affordability and proximity to home, the decision to attend college at SLI was an easy one. Bowers enrolled at SLI in the Fall of 1954 seeking a dual major in Health and Physical and Science Education. The first person he met on campus was Gale Breaux from Indian Bayou who was a member of the SLI Basketball Team who became a life long friend. The only time Bowers questioned his decision to attend SLI came on his first day when upon leaving the Campus Dinning Hall he encountered members of the SLI Football Team who cut off his hair and threw him into Cypress Lake as was the practice at that time. All of his memories of SLI after that first day are of very capable and concerned faculty and good times with great friends. His return to campus in May 2008 to celebrate the Fifty Year Reunion of the class of 1958 reinforced all of those terrific memories. In the Springs of 1955, 1956 and 1957 Bowers tried out for the SLI Baseball Team only to be cut from the team on the last day. Each summer he worked for the Freeport Sulphur Company and played baseball for the company baseball team hoping to get better to make the SLI team, but it did not happen. He had won the All University Intramural Cross Country Championship in the Fall of 1954 so he decided to try out for the SLI Track Team for the mile and two mile running events. He made the team and remembers running in each meet in the Spring of 1955 with his best time in the mile being 4 minutes and 45 seconds and in the two mile run 10 minutes and 30 seconds. In the Spring of 1955 Bowers was enrolled in a tennis class taught by Bill Stevenson, then the SLI Tennis Coach. He was surprised at the completion of the course when Coach Stevenson invited him to tryout for the SLI Tennis Team in the Fall. He accepted the invitation and after a round robin playoff he made the team along with Charlie Halphen, Dickie Walthers, James Kreamer and Ferdie Hebert. Bowers, feeling he had maxed out in track, gave it up and lettered for three years as a member of the tennis team. He credits Coach Bill Stevenson with having an important influence on his professional career in Physical Education. Among Bowers other activities at SLI were serving as President of the College of Education Student Government Council, President of the Physical Education Majors Club and Sports Editor of the L�Acadien, University Yearbook. Upon graduation in 1958 with a goal to teach Physical Education at the university level,Bowers was awarded a graduate assistantship at the University of Maryland to pursue a Masters Degree in Physical Education which he completed in 1959. He taught tennis, gymnastics and swimming as part of his graduate assistantship responsibilities. Bowers quickly learned that his undergraduate education at SLI had prepared him well for masters level study and for doctoral study later. After teaching physical education and coaching tennis and basketball at Dundalk High School in Maryland in 1960-61, Bowers was offered a tremendous opportunity to join the faculty at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. His teaching in the Physical Education Majors Program included Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology and in the Physical Education Activity Program he introduced soccer, weight training, fencing and wrestling. He also established and directed for seven years the Children�s Motor Development Clinic in which children with disabilities were taught by USL Physical Education Majors. In 1964 after returning to USL from a leave of absence to complete his doctorate in Physical Education and Psychology at LSU, he taught a beginning wrestling class. Near the end of the course members of the class asked if they could wrestle some other school. Dr. Bowers contacted the wrestling club coach at LSU and arranged for a meet at LSU. Encouraged by their success against LSU the group wanted to form a Wrestling Club to compete in 1965. They asked Dr. Bowers to be the club�s faculty adviser and coach and the Wrestling Club was formed with $600 from Student Government for uniforms and travel for the 1965 season. Competition the first year was limited to home and away matches with LSU, Fort Hood Army Base, the New Orleans Athletic Club and the Southern AAU Wrestling Tournament. The highlights of the year were the wins over LSU and a good showing in the Southern AAU Tournament. Early in the 1966 season the team went on an ambitious road trip, driving to Austin, Texas on a Friday and defeating the University of Texas Wrestling Club and on to College Station to defeat the Texas A & M Wrestling Club on Saturday afternoon. The tired USL team was jolted back to reality when it was soundly defeated on Sunday afternoon by LeTourneau College whose entire team was made up of wrestlers from throughout the United States who were all on wrestling scholarships. The USL team however defeated LeTourneau by one point in a return match later in the season in Lafayette. In the Southern AAU Wrestling Tournament in New Orleans several members of the USL Club placed in the top three in their weight class. Most impressive was John Dupree�s championship in the light heavyweight division after only wrestling for two years and Edmond Miller, president of the club who qualified for and wrestled in the NCAA tournament in 1966. Bob May, a faculty member in the Physical Education Department became coach and faculty adviser of the Wrestling Club in 1967 and guided it to become a varsity sport in the USL Athletic Department. In the Summer of 1967 Dr. Bowers received a rare opportunity to relocate and develop the first programs in physical education at the new University of South Florida in Tampa. He helped develop an innovative Physical Education Teacher Preparation, a Wellness Specialist Program and a Sports Medicine Program and served as Director of the School of Physical Education and Exercise Science for 17 years. For over 33 years he devoted his professional time to teaching Kinesiology, Motor Development and Learning and Physical Education for Students with Disabilities and conducting research. He wrote 50 grants and secured over $4.5 million in grant funding for research, student graduate assistantships and the production of instructional videotapes and computer assisted instructional programs related to Physical Education for Persons with Disabilities. He conducted the first research in the design and evaluation of accessible play structures for children with disabilities and has designed 80 Developmental Play Centers which have been constructed throughout North America. Dr. Bowers served as president of the National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Persons with Disabilities from 1982-84 and received its� Distinguished Service Award in 1986 and Distinguished Scholar Award in 1988. He was particularly honored to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the USL Department of Health and Physical Education and the USL College of Education Distinguished Achievement Centennial Recognition in 1998. Lastly, in 1996 the University of South Florida awarded a Distinguished University Professorship to Dr. Bowers in recognition of his outstanding teaching, research and professional service. After 40 years in higher education Dr. Bowers retired in 2000. He and his wife RoseAnne, a retired Assistant Superintendent of Technical, Career and Adult Education, have four children and six grandchildren who live in Atlanta, Baltimore, Salt Lake City and Austin. In retirement Lou and RoseAnne are actively engaged in travel, research, writing and community volunteer service. He also continues his interest in sport as a member and Secretary/Historian of the Sports Club of Tampa Bay. The club holds an annual Sports Award Banquet which recognizes the most outstanding amatuer male and female athletes, teams and professional athletes from the Tampa Bay area. The club presents $10,000 earned from the banquet each year to the Boys and Girls Club of Tampa Bay. The club also selects members of the Tampa Sports Hall of Fame and through its’ foundation supports amateur athletes and athletic teams from the Tampa Bay area in state, regional and national competition. Updated Feb. 23, 2009
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