Former Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden. | AP Photo/Phil Sandlin Bowden stumps for Trump in Tampa

Legendary Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden hit the campaign trail for Republican Donald Trump Monday, stressing that this was the most important election in his lifetime.

“This one is important and we have got to win the dadgum thing,” he told the crowd at a Trump campaign rally in Tampa. “I normally would not be up here except for that reason.”


Bowden, 86, spoke in the middle of the Trump campaign's huge three-day push through Florida. Along with stops in St. Augustine and Tampa on Monday, he will hold events in Sanford and Tallahassee on Tuesday. On Sunday, he was in Naples.

Bowden said he supports Trump, in part, because he wants a larger investment in the nation’s military.

“Aren’t you getting tired of these other nations embarrassing us,” said Bowden, who pointed to Russia as an example.

“We have been a great nation because of our teachers, because of our doctors, because of all our people,” Bowden said. “But that could not happen without a strong military. They are the ones that defend us.”

Trump’s emphasis on the state comes as Democrat Hillary Clinton is also spending a lot of time in Florida. She's attending early voting rallies Broward County Tuesday and in Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties on Wednesday. President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have also stumped for her in Florida.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi had been one of Trump's biggest Florida surrogates, but has not been on the campaign trail in recent weeks after the leak of video of disparaging comments Trump made towards women in 2005. She did appear with Trump at an event before the rally, the Tampa Bay Times reported Monday night.