Presented by ENERGY SHIELD ROOFS.
This Day In Sports…March 10, 1946:
The birthday of the late Jim Valvano, who not only coached North Carolina State to the 1983 national championship, but also did as much for cancer awareness as anyone in the 20th century. Valvano was founder of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, which has raised more than $458 million for research of the disease. Because of an endowment that covers administrative costs, 100 percent of V Foundation donations go directly to cancer research and programs.
In June of 1992, two years after resigning as North Carolina State head coach, Valvano was diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma. Already dying of cancer, Valvano gave an emotional and inspiring speech at the first ESPY Awards in 1993, less than eight weeks before his death, announcing the formation of the V Foundation. He delivered his mantra: “Don’t give up—don’t ever give up.” Valvano encouraged people of all ages to do three things every day for a life of fulfillment: laugh, think and let your emotions move you to tears.
During his speech, a note in the teleprompter gave Valvano a “30 seconds” notification. He was fairly incredulous. “That screen up there is flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body and I’m worried about some guy in the back going ’30 seconds’?” Valvano brought the house down at Madison Square Garden.
The peak of Valvano’s college coaching years was the 1983 national championship with NC State, when the underdog Wolfpack took down Houston’s famed Phi Slamma Jamma team that featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. North Carolina State’s Derek Wittenburg put up a shot in the final seconds that was woefully off-target, and Lorenzo Charlies grabbed the airball and dunked it home at the buzzer to give the Tarheels a heart-stopping 54-52 victory at The Pit in Albuquerque. The lasting image of that game was Valvano running around the court looking for someone to hug.
Valvano began his head coaching career at Johns Hopkins University, the famed medical research institution, going 10-9 in 1969-70. He later coached at Bucknell for three seasons and Iona for five before taking over at NC State in 1980. Valvano’s career record was 346-210. He was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023. Jim Valvano, who died at the age of 47, would have been 80 years old today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
