Reagan Hobbs just set a wild record for fandom. You might too if you’re a Florida State super fan and the longtime home of Bobby Bowden in Tallahassee comes up for auction. The former Seminoles graduate was sitting in a hospital on March 17, alongside his mother and brother, waiting as his father recovered from surgery. Meanwhile, on his phone, a bidding war was heating up. And his $737,000 decision came somewhere between nostalgia and instinct. 

“I was getting nostalgic,” Reagan Hobbs admitted to the Tallahassee Democrat. “It’s such a historic place, and it’s special to my family. I finally said, ‘OK, I’ll bid on it.’”

Then came competition. Almost immediately, Reagan Hobbs found himself locked in a bidding war with another buyer. He had told himself he’d stop at $600,000 but as the bids climbed, so did the emotion.

“Maybe this person lives in Europe or somewhere and has no connection to Tallahassee or FSU football,” he explained. “And I thought, ‘I can’t lose to this person’… Next thing you know, I ended up winning it.”

When the auction closed, Reagan Hobbs had won at $670,000. And when you include the 10% buyer’s premium, the final number hit $737,000 for the legacy house sitting on half an acre with four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, and a golf course.

Bobby Bowden bought the Killearn Estates property back in 1976 for $113,500, the same year he arrived from West Virginia to take over a struggling program. Over the next 34 years, he built it into a powerhouse, winning two national championships and becoming one of the most respected figures in college football before passing away in 2021 at 91.

For someone like Reagan Hobbs whose connection to Bobby Bowden runs through his family. His parents were close to the coach. His father Ronald even served as a national chairman of the Seminole Boosters in the late ’90s. Reagan himself graduated from FSU in 1995, met his wife Stacey there, and raised three children who all followed the same path. Another interesting thing is he didn’t even know how it looked on the inside until he brought it. 

Bobby Bowden’s house didn’t fail to impress

Reagan Hobbs has passed by Bobby Bowden’s property countless times before. But it’s only now that he’s checking out what he’s actually getting. When he first walked through the home, the walls or square footage aren’t what he first noticed. What stood out for him was the huge volume of history packed into every corner.

“There was memorabilia everywhere,” he said. “I got into a whole nostalgic mode seeing different awards – the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year, keys to cities, autographed items.”

Nearly everything had a tag on it, waiting to be auctioned off as part of a massive estate sale that drew close to 1,925 bidders and over 33,000 bids across more than 1,500 items. It’s a dismantling of a legacy piece by piece and it explains why logic took a backseat for Reagan Hobbs when he made this move without a detailed plan. He openly admits he has “no idea” what he’ll do with the property next but he did what he could. 

“I didn’t want to take the chance that someone would tear it down and sell the land,” he said. “I just couldn’t let that happen.”

And that’s the sweetest part as Reagan Hobbs steps in to protect something that can’t be rebuilt. He made sure a piece of Bobby Bowden still stands exactly where it belongs.