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Bill Cowher's wife, Kaye, passes away at 54

Posted by Mike Florio on July 24, 2010 12:39 AM ET
We're stunned this evening to learn, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that Kaye Cowher, the wife of former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, has died at the age of 54.

Per Bouchette, Kaye Cowher had been battling skin cancer. The duration of the condition isn't known; there had been no prior reports of any health issues, and no rumors that Mrs. Cowher had been ill.

Bill Cowher resigned as coach of the Steelers after the 2006 season, a year after the family purchased a home in North Carolina, Kaye Cowher's home state.

Pursued by the Browns and the Jets after the 2008 season and by the Bills last year, Cowher remains at the top of the "A" list for coaching vacancies.


The Cowhers have three daughters -- Megan, Lauren, and Lindsay. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Cowher family.



my condolences to the cowher family

Horrible way to go.

That sucks

WAY too young to go.

Sad news.

Very sad... RIP Mrs. Cowher.

Wow... how awful. My heart and prayers go out to the Cowher family.

Very sad news indeed.

A little more info on Kaye Cowher.....

Kaye Cowher, wife of former Steelers coach, dies at age 54
Friday, July 23, 2010
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steve Mellon
Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and wife Kaye greet fans during a parade celebrating the team's victory in Super Bowl XL, Feb. 7, 2006.

Kaye Cowher, the wife of former Steelers football coach Bill Cowher, died Friday in her native North Carolina after losing a battle with skin cancer. She was 54.

The Cowhers moved to Raleigh, N.C., in 2006, Mr. Cowher's final season coaching the Steelers, and continued to make it their home.

The Cowhers met when they were classmates at North Carolina State University in 1976. Mr. Cowher was on the football team and Mrs. Cowher, the former Kaye Young, and her twin sister, Faye, played basketball.

Tall at 5-foot-11, Mrs. Cowher displayed an inside power game that made her one of the first young women in her home state to receive a college athletic scholarship.

Her teams at North Carolina State went 21-3 and 29-5, respectively, winning the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball title in 1978 with a 9-0 record and ranking No. 3 nationally.

Faye and Kaye later played for the Women's Professional Basketball League, where Mrs. Cowher was among the pioneers in the early days of Title IX. They played one season with the New York Stars and two with the New Jersey Gems, competing against notable stars Carol Blazejowski and Nancy Lieberman.

After the league folded in 1981, she married Mr. Cowher, who was then playing for the Cleveland Browns.

From Bunn, N.C., where her father initially refused to let his twin daughters play the rough sport of basketball, Mrs. Cowher's mother made it happen.

"The reason we played is because of my mother," Kaye Cowher told the Post-Gazette in 2002. "She said that absolutely, these girls are going to have the opportunity to play."

She also appeared in a Wrigley Doublemint gum commercial with her twin sister.

Mrs. Cowher spent two years at Peace College in Raleigh before transferring to North Carolina State, where she graduated with a bachelor's in sociology in 1978.

At the time of her death she was a member of the North Carolina State Board of Visitors, an honorary body that advises the chancellor and board of trustees.

The Cowhers have three daughters, Meagan, Lauren, and Lindsay, all of whom have been standout basketball players. The oldest two, Meagan and Lauren, played together at Princeton University, where Meagan was the fourth-highest scorer in the program's history and Lauren was a co-captain finishing the 2008-09 season as the team's leading scorer.

The parents often took in their daughters' Tigers games.

"The girls get all their skills from their Mom -- she started to teach them at an early age," Bill once told The Daily Princetonian. "I'm just a spectator who loves the game."

Mrs. Cowher was a constant presence in the press box on Steelers game days and was considered as resolute and steely as her more famous husband.

She was the driving force behind her husband's retirement in 2007, pressing him to move with her and their youngest daughter to North Carolina, help with the commute to basketball games, reunite the nuclear family before their final daughter left the nest. Lindsay last winter completed her freshman season at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., where she played sparsely in 14 games.

For the last three years, Mr. Cowher, a Crafton native who attended Carlynton High School, has worked as a studio analyst for CBS Sports on its "NFL Today" show.

The family has requested privacy and has released no information on Mrs. Cowher's death. Services will be held in North Carolina on Monday.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10204/1075087-100.stm#ixzz0ubMTGSDn

Thats sad,god bless her and the Cowher family.


I guess in retrospect it makes sense why Cowher didnt get back into coaching,and I am sure him and his family cherish the fact that they could spend her last few years with her husband and family.

KING

My thoughts and prayers go out to him. That was also a good article to see how she grew up and what she did while Bill was coaching.

Hits me a bit close to home as my father had a scary but short lived successful battle against skin cancer. Cancer is a nasty disease and I really hope they find a cure for it one day.

So sad, so young. Thoughts and prayers to the Cowher family.

WOW,, just went over to the Steelers site.. I can't believe they haven't even got a news story about Mrs. Cowher.... Strange.

RIP Mrs Cower.

My condolences to the Cower family.

RIP Kaye.

Thoughts and prayers to the family.

So young. How unbelievably sad. This has been a horror of mine for a few years. My wife has battled skin cancer twice now. It's very rare that it's deadly and my wife's procedures, while painful and took a while to heal and left scars they were still pretty quick and low impact procedures all things considering. In and out same day. Cover up and smear that sun screen on in great big gobs every 2 hours folks and make darn sure the kids wear hats and get smeared whether they like it or not. There's growing evidence that repeated bad burns in youth when skin is more sensitive can mean serious problems later. You gotta feel terrible for those kids.

I wonder how long her battle with cancer has been going on?

I also wonder is this is why Cower turned down so many Head Coaching jobs?

RIP Kaye...Way to young! God bless you and your family.

Probably had something to do with it and he probably never said anything to keep her out of the news. Very sad

I wouldn't be surprised if he came back to coaching now. I know if my significant other passed away I would want to have something to throw myself into to keep my mind busy so I didn't drive myself crazy with grief.

Very sad news indeed!