{"id":231861,"date":"2026-04-14T21:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:57:10","slug":"to-honor-bobby-bowden-gov-desantis-signs-measure-renaming-tallahassee-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231861\/","title":{"rendered":"To honor Bobby Bowden, Gov. DeSantis signs measure renaming Tallahassee airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Out-of-town Gator fans coming to the Florida State University rivalry game will now fly into the Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee International Airport, Gov. Ron DeSantis quipped, as he made the airport name change official.<\/p>\n

At a ceremony in Tallahassee, DeSantis signed SB 628<\/a>, which renames several roads and facilities, including renaming the Tallahassee airport<\/a> after legendary football coach Bobby Bowden.<\/p>\n

Other changes in the new law include naming State Road 80 from Palm Beach County to Lee County<\/a> after President Donald Trump. It\u2019s not the first Trump tribute to come out of the 2026 Legislative Session. DeSantis already signed legislation last month renaming the Palm Beach International Airport as the President Donald J. Trump International Airport.<\/p>\n

In addition, SB 628 also honors the late FSU President John Thrasher by renaming a portion of College Avenue in Leon County as President John Thrasher Memorial Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a news conference<\/a> in Tallahassee, DeSantis focused his remarks on Bowden and the Tallahassee airport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI can think of no better person from this community that people have looked up to for decades to name the Tallahassee International Airport after then our renowned head coach of Florida State University,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

DeSantis often speaks reverently about the late Bowden, who won the National Championship at FSU in 1993 and 1999. DeSantis once even said<\/a> he would have named Bowden to be Lieutenant Governor if the coach was still alive.<\/p>\n

Sen. Corey Simon<\/a>, who played under Bowden, also was on hand at the news conference to celebrate the new airport name.<\/p>\n

\u201cBowden lived by the motto of faith, family and football. Well, as of today we can add another \u2018F\u2019 to that motto \u2014 and that\u2019s flights,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n

State officials said Bowden\u2019s tribute will happen quickly, as the law takes effect July 1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to share with you today that as soon as we get done with this ceremony, you\u2019re going to see FDOT crews out there on the road updating every single sign leading to the Tallahassee International Airport,\u201d said Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Out-of-town Gator fans coming to the Florida State University rivalry game will now fly into the Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[57241,103736,34275,409,1422,3603,11890,88215,412,103737,232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-231861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-bobby-bowden","9":"tag-bobby-bowden-tallahassee-international-airport","10":"tag-corey-simon","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-florida-state-university","13":"tag-fsu","14":"tag-jared-perdue","15":"tag-john-thrasher","16":"tag-ron-desantis","17":"tag-sb-628","18":"tag-tallahassee","19":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","20":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}