Jim Valvano

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Jim Valvano
Title	Head coach
College	North Carolina State University
Sport	Basketball
Born	March 10, 1946
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Died	April 28, 1993
Career Highlights
Overall	209–114 (.647)
Championships
1983
Awards
Arthur Ashe Award for Courage Cable ACE Award for Commentator/Analyst
Coaching positions
1980–1990	NC State

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.

Contents 1 Family 2 Education 3 College playing career 4 Coaching career 5 Vince Lombardi 6 Championship Game 7 Broadcasting 8 ESPY speech 9 Out of Basketball Career 10 Death 11 Legacy 11.1 V Foundation 12 Quotes 13 External links

[edit] Family

One of Rocco and Angela Valvano's boisterous offspring, Jim Valvano was married for 25 years to his high school sweetheart, Pamela Levine; they had three daughters: Nicole, Jamie, and Lee Ann.

[edit] Education

Valvano attended Seaford High School on Long Island, NY, and graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in English in 1967.

[edit] 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 NIT Tournament, 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.

[edit] 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. His teams also advanced the NCAA Elite 8 in 1985 and 1986. The 1983 team was one of two national championships for N.C. State. In addition to his coaching duties, he became N.C. State's athletic director in 1986.

Valvano's success at NCSU created enemies at nearby UNC-Chapel Hill and the creation of the "Poole Commission" a group of UNC alumni with the goal of curbing the sports programs at NCSU.

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 was forced to resign as the school's 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 minuscule graduation rates among his players: only 3 of his recruits ended up graduating from the university. One of the players recruited by Valvano, Chris Washburn, scored 470 on his SATs before being permitted to enroll (400 is the minimuum possible score). Washburn was later expelled 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.

As Athletic Director, Valvano was instrumental in developing Centennial Center, a replacement facility for William Neal Reynolds Coliseum, which was an on-campus facility that opened in 1946. This was a controversial project which put him at odds with stakeholders supporting rival UNC's new Smith Center. Eventually these matters escalated into a series of character smears against Valvano, particular a book making a number of unsubstantiated references. The source for the book was a disgruntled ball-boy and this led to UNC Board of Governors directly attempting to remove Valvano. Despite the obvious conflict of interest, the UNC System President removed the NCSU Chancellor who then removed the NCSU Athletic Director, who in turn fired Valvano.

A recent letter from announcer Bob Valvano sums up the witch hunt as he responds to someone accusing Jim of running a dirty program based on the book:

"I appreciate the kind words about your wishes for the book, and very much appreciate your candor about my brother and his reputation. Your summation is in fact one of the main reasons I want to write the book.

I agree that he has been "sanctified" and it is for the wrong reasons. He got sick and died very young, and handled it with great dignity and courage. I am proud of that. But he really was no different in his illness than he was in health. It was simply the perception, publicly, that changed, and your comments are a reflection of that.

Let me ask you a question. You say Jim ran one of the dirtiest programs in America. Did you know that after three investigations, the only thing he was ever accused of was that his players sold complimentary athletic shoes and tickets? Period. Did you know that? Did you know that the guy who ran the NCAA investigation, Dave Dideon, a hardened veteran of dealing with slick, underhanded coaches, said that he never investigated a more misunderstood coach than Jim, and that following the investigation, he wrote a letter to Jim saying that if he had a son, he would be proud to have him play for Jim? Probably not, and my guess is that if you did, you would rather not have it cloud your preconceived judgment that Jim was a bad guy.

He made mistakes. He tried to do too many things at once. He assumed details were being tended to that weren't, that he should have seen to. But dirty program? Astoundingly inaccurate, but perpetuated, as is the misconception that he became a "good guy" when he got sick. He was always a "good guy," an inspiring guy, and he made his share of mistakes. Both have been blown out of proportion, and it makes Jim a cartoon character.

Please don't take my remarks personally . . . I am probably tilting at windmills to think I will change anyone's mind, but it is a noble fight. To fight it, I can't, and won't, make Jim out to be a saint, but the criticisms are as inaccurate as the accolades are simplistic.

It is worth trying.

Bob Valvano "

[edit] 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 them with 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."

[edit] 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. N.C. State beat a heavily favored University of Houston squad that featured future NBA stars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler 54-52. This was N.C. State’s second national championship in college basketball.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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", 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." During his speech, the teleprompter stated that he had 30 seconds to which Valvano responded, "They got that screen flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen. I got tumors all over my body and I'm supposed to be worried about some screen flashing 30 seconds." 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 1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number 2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number 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 of cancer less than two months later.

[edit] 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 with Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Cosby Show.

[edit] Death

Valvano died at the age of 47 after a yearlong battle with cancer. He is interred at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[edit] 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 New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

[edit] V Foundation

The V Foundation 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. The foundation's motto 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.

[edit] Quotes

• "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.

• "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

• "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."

[edit] External links

• V Foundation for Cancer Research
• ESPY Award Speech by Jim Valvano
• ESPY Award Address in Text, Audio, Video
• Jim Valvano Timeline

Preceded by Norm Sloan

NC State Men's Basketball Head Coaches 1981 – 1990

Succeeded by Les Robinson