Saturday afternoon, Bobby Bowden will step on the sidelines for his 500th game as a collegiate head coach.

Bowden, now 78, made his head coaching debut on Sept. 9, 1959, when he led Samford to a 14-0 win over Maryville (Tenn.).

Now, put that into perspective: Dwight D. Eisenhower was the U.S. president at the time; it was the same year that Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the union; and a young rebel by the name of Fidel Castro became the prime minister of Cuba.

On the sports front, the Denver Broncos didn't exist, Johnny Unitas and his high tops were hot stuff and the Los Angeles Dodgers -- two seasons removed from Brooklyn -- would win the World Series later that fall.

(And yes, yours truly was alive at the time).

On the other sideline Saturday, Colorado's Dan Hawkins will coach his 145th game as a collegiate head coach. If you can read this, you don't need a history lesson. There's a good chance you not only were alive when Hawk coached his first game (1993), but you can remember what happened that year.

"I think if you added up every basketball, baseball, softball, rec league, every game I've ever been in, I think it would probably add up to about 300," Hawkins said Tuesday afternoon. "It's an amazing feat. I'm one of those guys who never says never, but I think as the years go on, you're going to see that become very hard to do anymore."

For Hawk to catch Bowden in terms of games coached, two things must happen: Hawk has to win (losing coaches don't keep their jobs) and he must have the tenacity to stay in the business for roughly 29 more seasons.

We like the odds of the first part.

We're not betting on the second.

Longevity in the coaching ranks is becoming extinct.

"One of the things that'schanged over the years is that there is so much scrutiny and so much attention on coaches and programs now," Hawkins said. "Part of that is what makes college football awesome -- but eventually people get tired of your offense, they get tired of your recruiting ... that's just the nature of our society.

"It's not enough anymore for a coach to do a good job, because eventually those parameters change. What's good? ... Look at some of the programs in the recent past that have gotten rid of some pretty good coaches and look at them now. They aren't even close to where they were before."

A couple names that come to mind? Nebraska fired Frank Solich after he went 9-3 in 2003. The Huskers haven't sniffed that kind of season since and they're on their second head coach since Solich.

Then there's Texas A&M's R.C. Slocum, who never had a losing season in 14 years with the Aggies, but found himself unemployed after the 2002 season. The Aggies are now on their second head coach since Slocum's departure and nowhere near as good as they were when Slocum left.

"Teams that are going 10-2, you're not saying, 'Well, that guy does a good job, runs a clean program,' " Hawkins said. "People are saying, 'Why can't you be 12-0? We want someone that can be 12-0, someone who can win a national championship.' "

But not even a national championship buys you a lifetime deal. Larry Coker won a national title at Miami in 2001; he was gone after 2006. Lloyd Carr won the prize in 1997 at Michigan; then found himself not-so-gently pushed out last season.

Next in line? Phil Fulmer won it all in Tennessee in 1998, but unless he turns it around in a hurry this year, he'll be a mandatory former Volunteer.

It's the nature of the business. As Hawk said, the intense scrutiny that comes with the job leaves little room for patience. It's also easy to point the finger of blame at the media, and to a certain extent, that's correct.

But part of that scrutiny is also attached to the salaries coaches command today.

Figure this: in 1963, when Eddie Crowder took over as Colorado's coach, he signed a four-year contract worth $15,000 per year. Even adjusted for inflation, that's barely $100,000 in today's dollars.

Today, the low-end salary for a BCS head coach is $1 million. When people see that kind of money, they want results.

Yes, longevity is indeed becoming extinct. The chances of seeing more head coaches stay at the same school for 33 years -- the length of time Bowden has been at FSU -- are slim. Patience for coaches is indeed in short supply.

But, the trade-off has been skyrocketing salaries for those coaches -- and that's a price they all seem willing to pay.