Sept. 9, 2010

NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State transfer Bo Flowers was cleared to compete immediately for the Redbirds by the NCAA, as announced by the Illinois State Athletics Department Thursday.

Flowers has been enrolled in graduate school at Illinois State, but was not cleared to compete at Illinois State by the NCAA after transferring in the offseason from Illinois. The Maywood, Ill., native will play his final season of collegiate football for the Redbirds in 2010.

Head coach Brock Spack was pleased to hear the news and grateful for all the help the team received to get Flowers cleared.

"It's nice to see that Bo received his clearance by the NCAA today," Spack said. "He's put in a lot of work and we've had a lot of support to make this happen. Cindy Harris in our athletics compliance office and Stacy Ramsey over in admissions have put a lot of time and effort into making this happen for Bo and we really appreciate their efforts. We look forward to Bo playing on Saturday and we will try to filter him in where we can. Hopefully he can help us in the secondary and bring another veteran presence to that group."

Flowers played in five games as a junior in 2009 for the Illini and played in nine games, starting in three at safety, as a sophomore in 2008. During that season he posted seven tackles, including a career-high five solo stops, in the season finale at Northwestern. He also recorded a career-high eight tackles versus Missouri in the Arch Rivalry game, including two solos and the first tackle-for-loss of his career.

Prior to enrolling at Illinois and returning to football in 2007, Flowers spent four years in minor league baseball with both the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him in the fifth round out of high school, and Chicago Cubs organizations. During his prep career at Walter Lutheran High School, Flowers was named the Chicago Sun-Times 2002 Male Athlete of the Year and was rated as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com as a high school senior. During his junior season, Flowers threw for over 1,300 yards and tallied 21 touchdowns while playing for his father, Clarence.

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