JEFF BOWER

Jeff Bower was a quarterback who led Roswell to state championships in 1968 and 1970 before becoming a standout player and a long-time head coach at Southern Miss. Bower passed for 3,008 yards in his high school career and was the 1970 AJC Class A Back of the Year and a Senior Scholastic Magazine All-American. Roswell was 33-4 in Bower’s three seasons as a starter. He made first-team all-state in 1969 and 1970. Bower was a starter on five Roswell state championship teams, two in baseball and one in basketball in addition to the two in football. With Bower as his school’s best all-around athlete, Roswell won the Class A triple crown of those sports in the 1970-71 academic year. Bower signed to play football at Georgia but transferred to Southern Miss after his freshman year. He started three years at Southern Miss and passed for 3,589 yards. Bower was the Southern Miss head coach from 1990 to 2007 and compiled a 119-83-1 record with six bowl game victories. At one time, Bower ranked sixth in the USM total offense all-time as a player while having coached the five quarterbacks in front of him, including Brett Favre. Bower is a member of the Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame (1988) and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (2009).