Jim Valvano
Valvano as head coach at NC State
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| Sport(s) | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
March 10, 1946 Queens, New York |
| Died | April 28, 1993 (aged 47) Durham, North Carolina |
| Playing career | |
| 1964–1967 | Rutgers |
| Position(s) | Point guard |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1967–1969 | Rutgers (asst.) |
| 1969–1970 | Johns Hopkins |
| 1970–1972 | Connecticut (asst.) |
| 1972–1975 | Bucknell |
| 1975–1980 | Iona |
| 1980–1990 | NC State |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1986–1989 | NC State |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 346–210 (.622) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
|
NCAA Division I champion (1983) 2× ACC Tournament champion (1983, 1987) |
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| Awards | |
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ACC Coach of The Year (1987) Arthur Ashe Courage Award Cable ACE Award for Commentator/Analyst |
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James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster.
While the head coach at North Carolina State University, his team won the 1983 national title against improbable odds. Valvano is not only remembered for running up and down the court seemingly in disbelief and looking for someone to hug after winning the game against the heavily-favored Houston Cougars, but also for his inspirational speech ten years later at the ESPY Awards, given less than two months before his death from bone cancer.
Valvano was the middle child of Rocco and Angelina Valvano, and was born in Corona, Queens, New York. Valvano was a three-sport athlete at Seaford High School in Seaford on Long Island and graduated in 1963.
Football coach Vince Lombardi was Valvano's role model. Valvano told an ESPY audience, on March 3, 1993, that he took some of Lombardi's inspirational speeches out of the 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 their coach.
Valvano was a point guard at Rutgers University in 1967, where he partnered with first-team All-American Bob Lloyd in the backcourt. Under the leadership of Valvano and Lloyd, Rutgers finished third in the 1967 National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which was the last basketball tournament held at the old Madison Square Garden. (The 1967 NCAA Tournament field was just 23 teams and the NIT invited 14 teams.) He was named Senior Athlete of the Year at Rutgers in 1967, and graduated with a degree in English in 1967.
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