Russ Pillar ’87 P’24.5 — named one of the top-100 most influential alums of the 20th century by the Brown Alumni Magazine — spoke at Brown Sports Network’s inaugural talk on Friday afternoon. Founded earlier this year by Charlie Pliner ’26 and Nikolas Rohrmann ’26, Brown Sports Network aims to connect Brown students with prominent industry professionals and executives.
The pre-professional club evolved from two group independent study projects that Rohrmann and Pliner developed last spring. Throughout spring 2024, 65 guest speakers from around the globe spoke across both classes.
Over 50 students flooded into MacMillan Hall to watch Pillar’s talk on Friday. A number of prominent alums also attended to support both Pillar and the club.
“If I have a chance to hear Russ Pillar talk, I’m going to show up,” said Sean Morey ’99 at the event. After winning the Super Bowl XL in 2006 as a special teams captain for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Morey was inducted into the Brown Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
After purchasing the Los Angeles Marathon in 2008, Pillar quadrupled its attendance within two years, according to his LinkedIn page. In 2012, Pillar founded Reigning Champs, an NCAA path-to-college program which was later sold in 2021.
Despite his career in sports, when Pillar started his talk, it wasn’t about sports at all. Instead, Pillar talked about key takeaways from his own professional development.
To the audience members, Pillar recounted what he called his bravest experience. As a junior who had never travelled farther from his New York home than Providence, he studied abroad in Japan for a year. In a time before email, texting and cheap international phone calls, Pillar felt incredibly lonely and homesick.
But if he could make it through that year abroad, Pillar said, he knew he could make it through anything.
“Be brave,” he told attendees. “When you are out in the world and you are in a situation where you are uncomfortable, remind yourself of your (bravest moment), and remind yourself that if you could do that, you can do this.”
Pillar encouraged attendees to embrace their “spiky”: “Lean into what makes you different and what makes you special,” he said, “and that will help you win.”
He also advised students to take command of their lives and prioritize working toward their goals.
Morey echoed that point, noting that doing work when the limelight isn’t on — especially on the days it feels hardest — is when the magic happens. Reflecting on his time in the NFL, Morey said that “every single day was a lesson in humility and resiliency.”
“Fighting through failure,” he added, “is the only way to succeed.”
Pillar’s final message to students was to always “prioritize meaning.” By the time he finished his talk, the audience erupted into applause.
The talk “was really influential,” said Dimitrios Kratimenos ’28, a goalkeeper for the men’s water polo team, after the event. “It was one of the best talks I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Kratimenos’s teammates expressed a similar sentiment.
“I didn’t expect to leave with such a different view on what I want to do after college,” Mac Berry ’27 told The Herald.
Berry came to the talk thinking it would emphasize the importance of sports, but by the time he left, he realized “it had nothing to do with sports and had everything to do with the character that you build.”
Lydell Dyer is a sports editor for The Herald. A junior hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
