CLEMSON UNIVERSITY — Fan reaction to head football coach Tommy Bowden’s parting of the ways with Clemson University was immediate and vocal Monday.

Stewart Fowler, 48, an Anderson insurance agent and church pastor, said a “Bring Coach Bowden Back” movement already had taken root and was growing rapidly as of Monday, the day the announcement was made regarding Bowden’s departure.

“We wanted him there for a lifetime,” Fowler said. “We want everyone to know that we need to bring coach back immediately.”

Fowler said it was a moral issue, and that his new organization would stand against the university.

“This is the No. 1 injustice in Clemson history,” Fowler said. “I’ve been a fan, the No.1 biggest fan, for 40 years and my wife is a Clemson graduate. This is the stupidest thing ever done. We will have tens of thousands of supporters. I thought we were above things like this and not like other places.”

Danielle Rivers, 18, of Columbia is a student at Clemson, and she is glad Bowden is no longer coaching the team, she said. The freshman English major went to all of the home games this year and thinks the play calling has been pathetic.

“It was predictable,” Rivers said. “If the fans could figure out what we were going to do next, of course the other team could.”

She expected Bowden would be gone at the end of the season, but she was surprised he did not finish out the year, she said.

Austin Dietz, 22, of Spartanburg is senior at Clemson, and he also thinks that the team is better off without Bowden.

“Everyone has been mad at the coaching staff,” Dietz said. “That’s all I’ve heard.”

Some Clemson students, however, were not calling for Bowden to be fired.

Lee Taylor, 21, of Clinton is a civic engineering major at Clemson. He is against making a change at the head coach post in the middle of the season, he said.

Bowden was great at recruiting top-notch talent, he said.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say he can’t coach,” Taylor said. “The best coach in the world can’t make a way when we have injuries on the offensive line.”

Josh Rochester, 18, of Westminster is a Clemson student who said he is “neutral” about whether Bowden should be coaching the team because Bowden experienced success in the past. The freshman engineering major said the team’s play calling should have been a lot better.

But many Clemson students were happy to see that Bowden no longer is coaching the team, Rochester said.

“The student body is giddy with joy,” he said.

Ayako Fujita, 27, is a graduate student at Clemson and a native of Tokyo who was disappointed with Clemson’s product on the field, he said. But he also was surprised to hear Bowden no longer is the head coach.

“It is not physical, it is mental,” Fujita said of the Tigers’ problems. “I want to see more energy from the players.”

Other reaction is being posted on this Web site.