Two-time Olympian Sidney Bowman was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, but grew up in Hammond, Louisiana. While still a student at Hammond High School, Bowman attended his first Olympics in 1928, held in Amsterdam, Holland. There the three-time high school letterman earned a bronze medal in track and field. Bowman graduated from Louisiana State University, where he was the national champion in the hop-step-and-jump. At the National A.A.U. games in Palo Alto, Bowman won the event with a 48' 11 ½" jump.

Bowman went on to the 1932 Olympics, held in Los Angeles. He failed to qualify for the finals in the hop-step-and-jump, but the U.S. team as a whole won several medals, including teammate Babe Didrikson's three medals. Bowman's first wife was Martha Ferguson, whose father owned the Brown Derby in Port Arthur, a popular night spot after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The couple moved to Port Arthur in 1932, and Bowman worked as a bartender at the club. The couple had one son, Fergie. After they divorced, Bowman moved back to Louisiana and got a job as a government tobacco inspector under Governor Huey P. Long. Bowman later was appointed State Fire Marshal in New Orleans. Bowman died in Hammond, Louisiana, after being hospitalized.

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