Okolona odyssey

Sporting News, The, April 10, 1995 by Terry Frei

Defensive tackle Tim Bowens played nine games in his junior season - his only season - at the University of Mississippi. Bowens then dropped out of school and returned to his tiny hometown of Okolona, Miss.

A skittish traveler in the best of conditions, Bowens skipped the NFL scouting-combine workouts after he boarded his Indianapolis-bound flight on a stormy morning. He spotted airline workers de-icing the plane, then got off - and went home.

After he did work out privately for NFL men at Okolona High School, many scouts would remember the sight of farm animals grazing beyond one end of the field as much as anything Bowens did that afternoon.

That is not the typical profile of a first-round draft choice.

So when the Dolphins took Bowens with the 20th pick of the 1994 draft, they braced themselves for the inevitable second-guessing from draftniks, fans, members of the media and even Miami's NFL brethren. In this case, the reaction to Bowens' selection varied from incredulously critical to mildly critical.

"What?"

"Biggest reach since Abdul-Jabbar."

"Who?"

"Bowens can play, but the Dolphins needed a linebacker." (Fair disclosure: That was my reaction in The Sporting News.)

The Dolphins' targeting of the 6-foot-4, 330-or-so-pound Bowens as their likely No. 1 pick had almost farcical, espionage overtones. They also apparently were astute, because Bowens was The Associated Press defensive rookie of the year in 1994. And as the 1995 draft approaches, Bowens' selection and rookie success are anecdotal examples of just how inexact thee sciences can be.

Okolona, population 3,267, is a furniture factory town 20 miles south of Tupelo on U.S. Highway 45. The sign at the city limits proclaims: "THE LITTLE CITY THAT DOES BIG THINGS." It can be intimate and friendly, yet its few streets also can be as mean as those in a major city. "You've got violence everywhere," Bowens told the Palm Beach Post after he was drafted. "There's violence there; there's violence here. You just stay out of the streets, you'll be all right."

Tim's mother, Adelene, and his father, Jimmie Earl, separated when he was 22 months old, but both still live in Okolona. Tim lived with Adelene until he was in high school. Adelene didn't like the way Tim kept breaking her household rules and, although she has remained close to her son, sent him to Jimmie Earl's home on North Olive Street.

When Tim was a high school junior, he got in a street fight with a high school dropout, a longtime Bowens antagonist. Bowens knocked down his opponent and started walking away. The other youth got up and stabbed Bowens three times in the back with a hunting knife. Bowens didn't press charges. Later, Bowens was picked up for beating up the young man who had stabbed him. It was street justice, but Bowens' father let him stay in jail for three days. His point to Tim: How'd you like jail? Ever want to see the inside of a cell again?

During the summer before his senior season at Okolona High, Tim lost three toes in a lawnmower accident. He was fitted for a special device and wore it for a short time underneath his football shoes, then discarded it.

Bowens signed a letter of intent to attend Mississippi State but couldn't meet entrance requirements. He went to nearby Itawamba Community College and was a junior college All-American as a sophomore. In the spring of 1993, he enrolled at Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss. Rust is a four-year university, so the NCAA originally said Bowens would have to sit out a year of football after transferring to Ole Miss that fall.

Though Ole Miss' appeal was pending, Bowens couldn't practice with the Rebels in the 1993 preseason. He gained weight and was perhaps 340 pounds when the NCAA ruled him eligible the day before the 1993 season opener. His only practice was a walk-through the day before the game, but he started against Auburn in sweltering late-summer heat.

Tom Braatz, the Dolphins' director of college scouting, was on the road and visited the Ole Miss campus the week after that game. "I graded him as a medium-round draft choice," Braatz says.

For the year, Bowens started seven games, played in nine and then missed two with a foot injury. He showed flashes of brilliance. In the seventh game against Alabama, he had seven tackles and a sack and was in on the hit that knocked quarterback Jay Barker out of the Tide lineup for two games. Two weeks later, he was the tackler when Memphis quarterback Steve Matthews suffered a broken leg. Dolphins scout Joe Bushofsky saw that game and slightly upgraded Bowens from Braatz's original assessment.

Bowens was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference choice. He declared himself eligible for the 1994 draft and went back to Okolona. Dolphins scout Jere Stripling went to Oxford, looked at more tape of the Rebels' late-season games and rated Bowens even higher than Bushofsky had - pegging him as a second-rounder. Clearly, Bowens' status was rising quickly. Stripling told Braatz: "You better go see him."

Mississippi defensive line coach Jim Carmody, a former Buffalo Bills assistant vouched for Bowens as a big-time talent. Billy Brewer, Mississippi's head coach then, told the Dolphins that Bowens would have been a top-five pick if he had stayed for his senior season.