Cowher a devoted fan, father

“When I watch, it’s purely as a parent,” Cowher said. “I’m just hoping the team wins, like any other father.”

Maintaining his low profile, Cowher has enjoyed watching Meagan progress through a stellar final season with the Tigers. Having scored 1,589 points to date, Meg is the fourth-highest scorer in Princeton women’s basketball history, only 19 points behind former teammate Becky Brown ’06. A two-time first-team All-Ivy League player, Cowher has recently been nominated for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award, which recognizes outstanding NCAA Division I athletes for athletic and academic achievement.

“She’s a very focused player and a fierce competitor,” Bill Cowher said of his daughter. “She has a great passion for the game that makes her a special player.”

Meagan’s stats will fit nicely in the family record book beside her father’s well-known achievements. After playing linebacker for N.C. State, the elder Cowher joined the NFL. Five years later, Cowher made the switch to coaching, beginning as an assistant for the Cleveland Browns. In 1992, he replaced Chuck Noll as Steelers head coach, leading the team to the playoffs in his first season. After two AFC championships and a 1996 Super Bowl appearance, Cowher and the Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL in 2006.

In spite of this, Bill claims that Meg’s mother probably played a larger role in her athletic career. Kaye Young Cowher played basketball for N.C. State and for the now-defunct Women’s Professional Basketball League, inspiring her three daughters. Lauren Cowher ’10 played for Princeton last season, and Lindsay Cowher currently plays for her high school team.

“The girls get all their skills from their Mom — she started teaching them at an early age,” Bill Cowher said. “I’m just a spectator who loves the game.”

But Cowher is no ordinary spectator. His experiences as a player and coach on the professional scene have affected how he perceives Ivy League sports. Surprisingly, Cowher finds competition in the Ancient Eight a pleasant alternative.

“Athletics in the Ivy League are remarkable,” Cowher said. “The kids are playing for all the right reasons. There are no scholarship incentives, and they have to have their priorities in hand. It requires tremendous commitment, but everyone is playing because they love the game.”

As a former coach, Cowher is also familiar with the pressures head coach Courtney Banghart has faced in her first season. He was impressed at how much progress she has already made in fostering a positive team dynamic and saw similarities in what the two prioritized in their coaching style.

“Courtney is a young, first-time coach, but she has already developed a great rapport with her football, er, basketball team,” Cowher said. “She has earned their respect.”

Between a busy schedule and Lindsay’s high school games, Bill Cowher was not sure which of Meagan’s final games he would be able to attend, but he remains optimistic about the end of the Tigers’ season. Princeton will play on the road for its last three games, stopping in New York this weekend to play Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday.

“A good [winning] streak down the final stretch would be good,” Cowher said.

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Meagan Cowher’s 24 points this past weekend helped the Tigers rally to defeat Brown and Yale, breathing life into her father’s hopes for a positive finish. As Mr. Cowher would emphasize, however, he shares these hopes with every Princeton basketball fan and looks forward to cheering alongside the rest of the crowd as we watch for the Tigers to deliver.