In 1993, the sports world lost one of its brightest lights when former North Carolina State University basketball coach, Jim Valvano, succumbed to cancer at the relatively young age of 47. Twenty five years after his death, I believe he would be overcome with joy to see the legacy which he has left behind.
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
Jim Valvano, the son of a New York City high school basketball coach (Rocco Valvano), made it to Rutgers University as a basketball player, but his dynamic personality and motivation pushed him to become a great college coach. After a year as an assistant at Rutgers, Valvano landed his first head coaching assignment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at the tender age of 22. He took the Blue Jays to their first winning record (10-9) in twenty four years. From there, he spent a few seasons as an assistant at UConn and three years as head coach at Bucknell (32-32).
“How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it.”
His next head coaching stop at Iona College, a Catholic University just outside of New York City, lit the fuse to skyrocket Valvano’s career. During the final two years of Coach V’s five years at tiny Iona, he took the Gaels to records of 23-6 (first NCAA tournament appearance ever) and 29-5 (made it to the second round of NCAA tournament).
“No matter what business you’re in, you can’t run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn’t matter how many games you’ve won.”
Jim Valvano then took one of the most difficult coaching assignments in the United States. In 1980 at the age of 34, Coach V became the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. NC State competes in one of the toughest basketball conferences in America (the Atlantic Coast Conference). NC State is also just 20 miles down the road from two of the most successful programs in college basketball history – the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
“Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.”
After posting two winning seasons, Valvano’s 1983 Wolfpack team finished the ACC regular season in third place with an overall record of 17-10 . They did not lose again, winning a bid to the NCAA tournament by capturing the ACC tournament, and upsetting higher-ranked teams to reach the final against Phi Slamma Jamma – the University of Houston.
At the time, UH was ranked #1 in the country, had won 26 straight games, and was led by future NBA Hall-of-Famers Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon and Clyde “The Glide” Drexler.
“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
Down by six points with a minute to go, Coach Valvano ordered his North Carolina State team to foul a Houston player on every possession. After several missed free throws by UH and some key buckets by NC State to tie the game at 52 points each, the Wolfpack had the ball for the game’s final possession. Guard Dereck Whittenburg lofted up a desperate long-range shot which fell into the waiting hands of center Lorenzo Charles. Charles then dunked the ball before the buzzer sounded to complete one of the most stunning championship upsets in NCAA basketball history.
“I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can’t trust ’em.”
After winning the national championship, Valvano’s North Carolina State basketball program endured a series of investigations in which some players reportedly received financial benefits from program boosters and/or sports agents. In 1990, Jim Valvano left college coaching and began a new career as a college basketball analyst with ABC and ESPN. Just two years into his new job, Coach V learned that he had developed metastatic adenocarcinoma, a type of glandular cancer that can spread to the bones.
“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.”
Just weeks prior to his death in 1993, Jim Valvano was honored by the sports world at ESPN’s annual ESPY sports awards show as recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. His emotional acceptance speech also announced the formation of a cancer research foundation to provide more money toward finding a cure for cancer.
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
With the annual help of his legion of friends, especially Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and fellow coach-turned-ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, Jim Valvano’s final big dream has become a very successful beacon of hope and lasting legacy.
For the past 25 years, the V Foundation (whose motto is “Victory over Cancer”) has spread Jim’s message by funding incredible projects and researchers focused on finding a cure for all cancers. During this time, the V Foundation has awarded more than $200 million to fund additional cancer research and programs.
In 2017 alone, over $20 million was distributed to more than forty dedicated Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s working at hospitals and cancer research facilities around the United States who are giving their all to help find a cancer cure.
This Wednesday night July 18, the annual ESPY Awards show will be televised at 7PM Central on ABC. This week, ABC’s ESPN unit will be promoting the show and remembering Coach Valvano during “V Week” by asking viewers to help to fund the V Foundation.
https://www.jimmyv.org/home-3/