If you don't know Bill Peterson, you don't know FSU Football

Before Bobby Bowden.

Before an 85,000 seat Doak Campbell Stadium.

Before national championships and Heisman Trophy winners.

At a time when Florida State was barely known outside the South, a change agent arrived on campus. It was 1960 and FSU football was about to get a lot more intense for the players, and a lot more fun for fans.

Bill Peterson had been an assistant at LSU under coaching icon Paul Dietzel. He was a coach on the way up, much like the Seminoles’ fledgling football program. Peterson and FSU were a great fit for each other—right time, right place. And together, they were destined for great things. So were many of Peterson’s coaching assistants — a long list of born winners that includes names like Bobby Bowden, Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells. Here’s the story, as told by his son, Bill Peterson, Jr. in an interview from our archives.