Before he was discovered by them though, he was being groomed in the empire of head coach Dan Sekanovich and Joseph Orsene, who succeeded him in 1961, Cichowski's senior year.
Before the season began, he convinced Orsene to make him a starting fullback, something Sekanovich had also suggested to the new coach before he departed to join the staff of Susquehanna University.
But his preference was the University of Maryland, College Park, with a football scholarship and the chance to suit up as a Terrapin under coach Tom Nugent.
He was allowed to return to school in the fall of 1964 and once his grade point average rose, was no longer on probation with the football team.
In his junior year, with his grades steady and another football season already underway, the skills Cichowski had been nurturing since his days at SHS were recognized when he was selected by the Green Bay Packers as a future in the second round of the NFL draft.
A year later, not long before the 1966 draft, Cichowski was wooed by Green Bay, and legendary coach Vince Lombardi in particular, with the red carpet treatment that included watching from the bench as the team clinched the NFL Western Conference title.
Saban was a former college coach whose career in the pros began in 1960 with the birth of the old American Football League when he piloted the former Boston Patriots.
A one-time college and pro football player himself, he had left the AFL and took a job as head coach at Maryland in Cichowski's senior year.
Cichowski found success in the building contractor business and lived with his family in the Denver area until moving to Montana in 1976.