POLAND — United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley honored former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher on Monday during its annual ‘Champions Among Us’ event at the Lake Club in Poland.

Cowher, who led the Steelers to a Super Bowl title in his 15th and final season in 2006, attended Monday’s event as the guest of honor and participated in a question-and-answer period.

During the evening, he commented on his playing days, which included a highly decorated career at North Carolina State and six seasons in the NFL, getting his start in coaching under then-Cleveland Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer, and Cowher even directed praise to the Youngstown State football trio of Beau Brungard, Michael Wells and Desmeal Leigh, who were also in attendance.

“[This is] what it means about giving back to your community,” Cowher said. “I think everybody up here’s story can … reflect on their journey to get here. Never losing sight of the people that helped them be where they are today, lessons that we have all learned along the way – the unselfishness, the discipline, the sacrifice, the teamwork, the memories, the brotherhood. That’s what it’s about: brotherhood.

“Whether you played it, you coached it, you’re in a room like this tonight, and there’s some things that you can do for others. Never losing sight of where you came from, and always being able to be there for someone else. Lending a helping hand, you can give a crazy thought to someone to uplift them sometimes. Today, we need more of that.”

Shortly before welcoming Cowher on stage, United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley President Bob Hannon honored Brungard and his YSU teammates, who Hannon and later Cowher commended for staying in Youngstown after a playoff appearance and amid lucrative offers to leave.

Brungard, who was seated at a table with his teammates, YSU head football coach Doug Phillips and YSU men’s basketball coach Ethan Faulkner, spoke to the audience while being given an award by Hannon.

“I’m super excited heading into my last year here at YSU, and [with] everything that’s going on, there’s a lot of reasons that I chose to stay around for my last year, but the biggest one is simply because I love Youngstown, I love YSU and I love this community,” Brungard said. “And I’m so thankful, and I pray to the Lord that I have teammates like Mike Wells and Des Leigh, who decided to stay with me as well. They had offers, they could have went anywhere in the country, but they stayed with me. And a head coach with the same mindset. We’re here to win a national championship this year. Everybody’s in the boat.”

After taking the stage, Cowher turned toward Brungard, Wells and Leigh and praised them for staying at YSU. He said the loyalty they showed is sorely lacking by most others, likely referencing the frequency of transfers in modern college football.

Cowher then fielded questions from Hannon. During the conversation, Cowher, who grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton, explained that he motivated himself at NC State by reading rejection letters from opposing colleges before games. He also said that in 1984, during his sixth year in the NFL, he decided that he would retire and become a coach.

He came to the decision after Schottenheimer, who had coached Cowher during his three years in Cleveland, called him and said he would offer him a third of the money and have him work three times as hard if he came back to the Browns as a special teams coach. Schottenheimer, Cowher recalled, then promptly hung up.

“So much for negotiating,” Cowher said with a big laugh.

Cowher spent four seasons on the Browns coaching staff, the first two of which with the special teams and the final two as the defensive backs coach. Then, he followed Schottenheimer to the Kansas City Chiefs despite a better offer from Bill Parcells and the New York Giants.

In a twist of fate, Cowher struck up a friendship with Bill Belichick around this time; Cowher said he and Belichick would often call each other and give each other defensive advice if they played a common opponent.

In 1991, following the firing of Bud Carson, Cowher was a finalist to become the Browns’ head coach. Belichick, coming off a Super Bowl win as the Giants’ defensive coordinator, got the job instead.

Cowher, who took over the Steelers the next year, joked that he and Belichick did not talk to each other again for another 15 years or so.

Near the end of the event, Cowher was joined on stage by several of the men sitting with him at a table near the front of the room: former Browns offensive lineman Robert Jackson, Boardman native and former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, Ohio State alumnus and former Steelers quarterback Mike Tomczak, former Browns offensive lineman and broadcaster Doug Dieken and former Browns wide receiver Reggie Langhorne.

The event, which was attended by Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, YSU President Bill Johnson and former San Francisco 49ers co-owner John York, among others, raised more than $40,000 during its live auction. A silent auction was set to take place later on in the evening.