Jim Valvano Biography

Jim Valvano	James Thomas Anthony Valvano Born: 1946-03-10 Birthplace: New York City Died: 1993-04-28 Cause of Death: Cancer Remains: Buried, Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, NC Race: White Field: Basketball Famous for: American college basketball coach
Field: Basketball

James Thomas Anthony Valvano, 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.

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. In addition to his coaching duties, he became NC State's athletics director in 1986. In 1990, accusations of rules violations, alleged in the book Personal Fouls by Peter Golenbock, led to his resignation. An NCAA investigation cleared Valvano, but found that players had illegally sold shoes and game tickets. As a result, the basketball program was placed on probation for two years and banned from participating in the 1990 NCAA tournament. The story can be found in his 1991 autobiography, Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead.

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", 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. 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."

Valvano received a lengthy standing ovation. He died less than two months later. Valvano died at the age of 47 after a yearlong battle with cancer (metastatic adenocarcinoma).