Jim Valvano
From Hoopedia
James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 - April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball coach.
While the head coach at North Carolina State University, he won the 1983 NCAA National Championship. One of the more iconic moments in college basketball history is Valvano running up and down the court after the championship game, seemingly in disbelief and looking for someone to hug.
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College Playing Career
Valvano was a star point guard at Rutgers University in 1967, where he partnered with first-team All American Bob Lloyd to form the best backcourt in the school's history. Under the leadership of Valvano and Lloyd, Rutgers finished third at the 1967 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which was the last basketball tournament held at the old Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue. Jim was named Senior Athlete of the Year at Rutgers in 1967.
Coaching Career
Valvano's 19-year career as a head basketball coach included stops at Johns Hopkins, Bucknell, Iona, and North Carolina State. He had a career record of 346-212. Valvano was twice voted ACC coach of the year. His teams won ACC Championships in 1983 and 1987, and an NCAA Title in 1983. The 1983 team was one of two national championships for NC State. In addition to his coaching duties, he became NC State's athletics director in 1986.
In 1990, accusations of rules violations, originally surfacing in the book Personal Fouls by Peter Golenbock, led to his resignation after two state newspapers and the N.C. State student paper called for his ouster. A 1989 NCAA investigation had cleared Valvano but found that players had illegally sold shoes and game tickets (over 650 instances) and as a result, the basketball program was placed on probation for two years and banned from participating in the 1990 NCAA tournament. Also, a state-appointed Poole Commission issued a 32-page report that concluded that Valvano and his coaching staff circumvented rules so they could keep players eligible. After this report came out Valvano had been forced to resign as the schools' athletic director in October, 1989. In addition to Valvano's woes with the NCAA and his own University, ABC News, citing unidentified sources, reported that as many as four N.C. State players, including star forward Charles Shackleford, conspired to hold down the scores of four games in return for cash payments from a New Jersey contractor during the 1987-88 season. ABC said that one of the games was against Wake Forest on March 6, 1988. State defeated Wake Forest by four points after being favored by 16. According to Shackleford's lawyer and agent, Sal DiFazio, Shackleford never shaved points, although he admitted taking $65,000 from two men-one of whom was identified by ABC as the key figure in the point-shaving scheme-while playing for the Wolfpack. (Los Angeles Times, 3/3/90)
During Valvano's ten-year tenure as head coach at North Carolina State he gained a reputation for having miniscule graduation rates among his player as only 3 of his recruits ended up graduating from the University. One of the players recruited by Valvano, Chris Washburn, scored 470 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test before being permitted to enroll (400 is the minum possible score). Washburn was later thrown out of school for stealing a fellow student's stereo.
Valvano's version of these events can be found in his 1991 autobiography, Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead. Despite these incidents, Valvano is still considered by some to be one of the best coaches in the history of college basketball.
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi was Valvano’s role model. Valvano read some of Lombardi’s books and tried to coach like Lombardi. Valvano told an ESPY audience, on March 4, 1993, that he took some of Lombardi’s inspirational speeches out of his book “Commitment to Excellence” and used it on his team. Valvano discussed how he planned to use Lombardi's speech to the Green Bay Packers in front of his Rutgers freshman basketball team prior to his first game as a coach. This led to Valvano accidentally telling his Rutgers basketball players this:
Finally I said, "Gentlemen, all eyes on me." These kids wanted to play, they're 19. "Let's go," I said. "Gentlemen, we'll be successful this year if you can focus on three things, and three things only: Your family, your religion, and the Green Bay Packers."
Championship Game
Valvano's famous reaction after the Wolfpack victory came after the game-winning shot in the NCAA finals. Dereck Whittenburg heaved a last-second airball that was caught and dunked by Lorenzo Charles as time expired. NC State beat a heavily favored Houston squad that featured future NBA stars Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon and Clyde “The Glide” Drexler 54-52. This was NC State’s second National Championship in college basketball.
Broadcasting
After his coaching career, Valvano became a popular broadcaster for ESPN and ABC. In 1992, he won a Cable ACE Award for Commentator/Analyst for NCAA basketball broadcasts. From time to time he was paired with basketball analyst Dick Vitale, both of whom had similar enthusiasm and similar raspy-sounding voices. Together they were called "The Killer V's" (a play on "killer bees"). The two even had a cameo appearance, as professional movers, on an episode of The Cosby Show.
ESPY Speech
Shortly before his death, he spoke at the inaugural ESPY Awards, presented by ESPN, on March 4, 1993. While accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award, he announced the creation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. He announced that the foundation's motto would be "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." His speech has become legendary, and he closed the speech by saying, "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. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all." One thing Valvano also said in the speech that many remember most are the following words:
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. No. 1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. No. 2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. And No. 3 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."
Valvano received a lengthy standing ovation. He died less than two months later from cancer himself.
Out of Basketball Career
Valvano created JTV enterprises (his own corporation) to oversee many of his entrepreneurial endeavors. He gave hundreds of motivational speeches across the country and was granted guest spots on The Tonight Show, David Letterman, and The Cosby Show.
Death
Valvano died at the age of 47 after a yearlong battle with cancer. He is interred at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Legacy
A 1996 TV-movie titled Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story, starred Anthony LaPaglia as Valvano. In 1993, Valvano was inducted into the Rutgers' Basketball Hall of Fame. Later in 1999, Valvano was inducted into both the Hall of Distinguished Alumni at Rutgers University and the Springfield, Massachusetts, Basketball Hall of Fame.
V Foundation
The The V Foundation for Cancer Research is a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer. The foundation seeks to make a difference by generating broad-based support for cancer research and by creating an urgent awareness among all Americans of the importance of the war against cancer. The V Foundation performs these dual roles through advocacy, education, fundraising and philanthropy. Motto of the foundation is “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”. The Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic is held every year in August at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, North Carolina. Every year, four men's college basketball teams compete in the "Jimmy V Basketball Classic". Recently, a women's game was added to the line-up. With each telecast of the event, ESPN plays videos of Valvano's life, basketball career, and ESPYs speech. To date, The V Foundation has raised over $60 million for cancer research.
