26 Facts About Jim Valvano

Jim Valvano is remembered for his ecstatic celebration after winning the national championship game against the heavily favored Houston Cougars.

Jim Valvano is remembered for an inspirational and memorable speech delivered at the 1993 ESPY Awards while terminally ill with cancer.

Jim Valvano gave the speech less than two months before his death from adenocarcinoma.

Jim Valvano was the middle child of Rocco and Angelina Jim Valvano, and was of Italian descent.

Jim Valvano was a three-sport athlete at Seaford High School in Seaford on Long Island and graduated in 1963.

Jim 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.

Jim 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.

Jim Valvano was a point guard at Rutgers University in 1967, where he partnered with first-team All-American Bob Lloyd in the backcourt.

Jim Valvano is most recognized for his reaction of running around on the court looking for somebody to hug in the moments after the Wolfpack victory came after the game-winning shot in the 1983 NCAA finals.

Under subsequent pressure from the school's faculty and new chancellor, Jim Valvano negotiated a settlement with NC State and resigned as basketball coach on April 7,1990.

Jim Valvano created JTV enterprises to guide many of his entrepreneurial endeavors.

Jim Valvano gave hundreds of motivational speeches across the country and was a featured guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.

In June 1992, Jim Valvano was diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma, a type of glandular cancer that can spread to the bones.

Jim Valvano's hair was expected to fall out with chemotherapy treatment, but it did not.

Jim Valvano preemptively had his head shaved and was prepared to use a variety of whimsical wigs on his broadcasts, but his own hair remained.

New York native Jim Valvano had always wanted to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.

Jim Valvano had been given that honor for the 1993 season opener to be held on April 12, but he was too ill to do so.

Jim Valvano died at age 47 on April 28,1993, less than two months after his famous ESPY speech, following a nearly year long battle with metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown origin.

Jim Valvano died at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, 10 years to the month after winning the national championship in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.

Jim Valvano is buried in the Cedar Hill Section of Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.

In 1993, Jim Valvano was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 1999, Jim Valvano was inducted into both the Hall of Distinguished Alumni at Rutgers University and the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 2004, Jim Valvano was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Krzyzewski arrived at Duke the same season as Jim Valvano did at North Carolina State.

Jim Valvano married his high school sweetheart Pam and they had three daughters.

Jim Valvano's younger brother, Bob, is a sportscaster and former basketball coach.