BARON CLUB — Franciscan University of Steubenville officials stood with community honorees and the keynote speaker for the 55th-annual Baron Club Awards Dinner Thursday. From left, front, are Carol Phillipson; Tyra Timmons; Matt Birk; the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, and Joanna Bernabei-McNamee and, back, Veronica Phillipson; Todd Phillipson; Tom Timmons and Joe Wallace. -- Christopher Dacanay

STEUBENVILLE — Honoring community members was the focal point of Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Baron Club Awards Dinner, which featured a former Super Bowl champion as its keynote speaker Thursday.

In its 55th year, the awards dinner is Franciscan University’s primary fundraising effort for its intercollegiate athletics program. Formerly known as the Century Club, the Baron Club is composed of local sponsors that donate annually toward advancing the university’s athletic endeavors.

Joe Wallace, Franciscan’s director of community relations and former head men’s basketball coach, said community recognition is integral to the Baron Club’s yearly dinner. He added that this year marks the event’s largest sponsorship support, a testament to the university’s relationships with others in the Ohio Valley being “the best they’ve ever been.”

Among those being honored Thursday in the Finnegan Fieldhouse were Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, head women’s basketball coach at Boston College; Tom Timmons, local banker and community benefactor, and the Phillipson family, founders of the Cynthia Rose Phillipson Charitable Foundation.

This year’s keynote speaker was Matt Birk, an All-Pro center with a 15-year career playing for the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens, which he helped win Super Bowl XLVII. He is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and the recipient of the 2011 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

A Catholic, Birk said he was thrilled to be invited to Franciscan, “the best Catholic university in the world.” Birk told the story of his football career, throughout which he had ceased practicing Catholicism until the birth of his daughter inspired him to dive back into his faith.

Football and Catholicism have a lot in common, Birk said, adding that both show how succeeding doesn’t take talent. Rather, he said, it takes commitment and discipline.

“In sports, you find out you can actually push yourself beyond your limits. And probably the biggest thing is you’re part of something bigger than yourself, and it’s not about you. All those things are true in sports, and they’re true in our faith. … At Franciscan, … you’re using (sports) as an extension of your evangelization strategy, and you’re seeing college kids in the faith.”

Bernabei-McNamee received the Father Terence Henry, TOR, Award. She is a graduate of Weirton Madonna High School and West Liberty University, where she was inducted into the Hilltoppers’ Hall of Fame. She was also named the 1997 Player of the Year by the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

In her sixth year as head coach at Boston College, Bernabei-McNamee said she was honored to be recognized and to visit home — a great feeling, she added, particularly during the travel-heavy recruiting season.

“My heart will always belong to Weirton and the Ohio Valley,” she said.

Being back near her hometown of Weirton had caused Bernabei-McNamee to reflect on family, which she called “the cornerstone of everything.” She said family connectivity was central to her upbringing and is something she feels is important for children’s development.

Timmons also received the Henry award. Raised in Barnesville, Timmons moved to Steubenville with his wife, Tyra, a decision that held a lot of uncertainty, though Tom Timmons now believes, “We couldn’t be happier to call Steubenville our home.”

With his professional career in lending, Timmons’ volunteer service a has extended to the Steubenville City Schools Board of Education, Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, Union Cemetery Association, United Way of Jefferson County, the finance committee at Valley Hospice, the Ohio Valley Health Center board, Kiwanis Club of Steubenville, the Charles M. And Thelma M. Pugliese Foundation and the Albaugh/Wherry Foundation.

Timmons began his speech by reading the poem “Why Be a Volunteer” about selfless giving and ended by reciting maxims about the importance of service. He offered thanks to God for blessings in life, WesBanco, his parents, his sons and their families, his friends and his wife, with whom he will be celebrating 50 years of marriage on June 14.

The Kuzma Family Award went to the Phillipson family and was received by Todd Phillipson, who recalled looking up to the awards’ namesake, the late Henry “Hank” Kuzma, as a mentor.

Todd and Carol Phillipson were married in 1996 and had two daughters, Cynthia and Veronica. On Oct. 30, 2014, 15-year-old Cynthia Phillipson, then a freshman at Steubenville Catholic Central, suffered cardiac arrest while at basketball practice and died three days later.

In her memory, the Phillipsons founded the memorial foundation, which has left a legacy of aid through providing scholarships for local students, hosting memorial lantern-lighting and butterfly release ceremonies to help grieving individuals and supporting Mary’s Meals, an international charity aimed at providing food for children in poor communities. Because of the memorial foundation’s support, a school lunchroom in Africa was named after Cynthia Phillipson.

Todd Phillipson said doing good through the foundation has at times been emotionally difficult, but the surrounding community has consistently rallied to help the family push through and honor Cynthia Pillipson’s legacy.

“We cannot stand up here and take any credit,” Todd Phillipson said. “It is people, it is family, it is friends, it is this community that has permitted us to serve, … (and) it comes together like no other in times of crisis, during those times when things seem the darkest.”

He noted one of Cynthia Phillipson’s last social media posts before her death, which reads, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.”

Given time to speak was Danny Anderson, Franciscan’s athletic director, who said of the university’s athletics program: “We want to send out young men and women who are mature, integrated, well-formed, who will stand in the cultural breach, who will sanctify every human activity and will do so more effectively … (because of) having been athletes at Franciscan.”

Anderson listed various student athletes’ personal and athletic accomplishments, noting that 39 athletes have received all-conference recognition since the fall semester, including 13 receiving first team recognition, and the average student athlete grade point average exceeds the rest of the student body’s average.