Steelers Legend Bill Cowher Shares How Being Rejected Gave Him The Fight Needed To Succeed With The Help Of A College Coaching Legend

The Pittsburgh Steelers' former Head Coach Bill Cowher had a phenomenal career by anyone's standards. Cowher has seemingly done it by playing football in college and then to the NFL and moving onto coaching. But all of those successes did not come without their share of frustrations and rejections. 

Cowher joined his former quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, on his podcast Footbahlin' With Ben Roethlisberger, to talk about a variety of topics including his journey to the NFL. Cowher, who is a Pittsburgh native, graduated from Carlynton High School. So he was understandably frustrated when his two 'hometown' college teams, the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University, failed to offer him a scholarship. He shared with Roethlisberger that he was able to take that frustration and use it to help fuel his success. 

Steelers Legend Bill Cowher On Thumbing His Nose At The University of Pittsburgh

Cowher shopped himself around after college but was not getting the offers he expected. He now credits the chip he has on his shoulder as a cornerstone of his success. He said that North Carolina State University was one of only two schools that expressed a sincere interest in him.  

"I was 6'3" about 200 pounds, very skinny, I took a bunch of trips and nobody offered me a scholarship. I only had two scholarship offers actually, one was from William and Mary and one was from NC State."

He also acknowledges that the great Lou Holtz was a tremendous inspiration as a coach. Holtz happened to be the coach of NC State Cowher's freshman year in 1975. Ironically, prior to coming to NC State in 1972, Holtz had been the head coach at William and Mary (for the second time) which was the only other school to offer Cowher a scholarship.

Holtz was a head coach at multiple college programs and is widely considered one of the greatest collegiate-level coaches of all time. He led six different teams to bowl games and was the only coach to do so. He is also the only coach to ever lead four different programs to a position in the top 20. After retiring from coaching he began working as an analyst.   

"Lou Holtz was the coach down at NC State my freshman year. I think a bunch of extra scholarships to be quite honest with you."

Cowher said he had to take that frustration and use it to his advantage. To help facilitate that, he kept those rejection letters and dusted them off before games when he needed any extra motivation. 

"Pitt did not offer me a scholarship. Penn State did not offer me a scholarship. So every time we played them, when I was in school I would pull out the letters that said, 'Sorry we can't offer you something.' So I kept all those letters. And my last game ironically at NC State was ironically against Pitt, in the Tangerine Bowl. And we beat Pitt."

The Tangerine Bowl of 1978 was played in Orlando Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It was only the third time the two teams had played each other and Pitt won the previous two meetings. At that time, Pitt was not linked to a conference and the Wolfpack were part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). This time the 'Pack won, 17-30.

That wasn't the first time those letters came in handy. Cowher said he actually got the opportunity to use them his freshman year, during a game where he wouldn't have expected to play. 

"In my freshman year, we beat Penn State. I was actually playing in that game because a couple of guys got hurt at inside linebacker so I played as a freshman." 

That game was a clash of two coaching giants with NC State led by Holtz, during his final year with the team and Penn State being coached by the late Joe Paterno. The Wolfpack came into the game with a record of 8-2 and Penn State with a record of 7-2. Penn State was ranked seventh overall at that point in the season but lost the game 7-12. 

Roethlisberger asked Cowher how great that felt. 

"It felt great. Nothing better than to beat people who think you can't even play for them. As you know we try to make everything personal."   

Cowher certainly isn't the first, last or only player to use rejection as an accelerant on the fire of playing passion. Regardless of how or why he ended up there, his time at NC State helped set him up for a successful playing career in the NFL and an even more successful coaching career. Cowher was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2021, he was the first member of the Wolfpack to be enshrined in Canton. 

Are you surprised Cowher wasn't more sought after coming out of high school? Do you think that chip on his shoulder helped him excel further than he might have without it? How much do you think having someone like Holtz as an early influence makes a difference? What did you think of Cowher's time in Pittsburgh?