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Jim Valvano (left) was born on March 10, 1946 to Rocco and Angelina Valvano in Queens, New York. He was the middle child to his brothers NIck (right) and Bob.
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Jim Valvano played Rutgers basketball for three seasons. His senior year he led the Scarlet Knights to a 3rd place finish in the NIT tournament. He was also named Senior Athlete of the Year. He is currenty the 21st highest scorer for his career with 1,122 points.
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Valvano's coaching career lasted 23 years. He coached as an assisstant at Rutgers and UConn, and as a head coach at John Hopkins, Bucknell, Iona, and NC State
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After NC State's previous head coach, Norm Sloan, left for the same position at Florida, NC State made a surprise move by hiring an unknown coach named Jim Valvano. From his first practice, he inspired and motivated his players to greater hights than they ever thought.
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North Carolina State, led by Jim Valvano, capped of its Cinderella run in the 1983 NCAA tournament by beating the number 1 team, Houston, in the final by a score of 64-62.
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Jim Valvano was named the Atheltic Director in 1986, and he held that position until he stepped down in 1989 after receiving much public scrutiny for allegations made in a book, but proven wrong by the NCAA. The NCAA did find other violations during its investigation and NC State received some punishment for it.
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In 1990, Jim Valvano signed a deal with ESPN to be a Commentator/Analyst for College Basketball. In 1992, Jim received the Cable ACE Award for Commentator/Analyst for NCAA Basketball broadcasts. Even as he ws battling cancer, Jim continued to do commentary for the preseason NIT in November 1992.
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Jim Valvano accepted the inaugural Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, and gave an inspirational speech in which he announced the creation of the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.
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Jim Valvano died April 28th, 1993 after battling bone cancer for over a year.
