SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
There are three things we should do every day . . .
No. 1 is “laugh”. You should laugh every day.
No. 2 is “think.” You should spend more time in thought.
No. 3 is “you”, you should have your emotions moved to tears, whether it be happiness or joy.
Then think about it. If you laugh, you think and your 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 a heck of a week. — JIM VALVANO
I can never forget Jim Valvano. Every year around this time, I see him on the tubes telling it like it is when your time is going fast, when cancer will soon take you away, when what was is now what is, when be brought tears here there and everywhere on ESPN. He was so full of emotion, he just let it all hang out.
He had as is the norm, a limited time to stand up there and deliver whatever could be said. Even when the television producer signaled to him that his time was running too long, he quickly laughed it off, looked at the packed audience, shook his head, and said straight out — “Yo, you got to be kidding me, there are tumors all over my dying body and you are telling me my time is almost over up here.”
The crowd roared and he picked up steam. Rather than tone it down and cut it short, he gave it his best. Spoke of the time he had left, maybe a few more months or two, about his family that he loved, about his friends that he loved, about the basketball players he coached, about how he ran onto the court in Albuquerque looking for someone to hug after his North Carolina State men’s basketball team stunned heavily favored Houston for the 1983 national championship.
I didn’t know Jim Valvano very long. Cancer had ended his life too soon. But the night I met him was one I’d never forget. It was 1972 and these were his years as head basketball coach at Iona College in New Rochelle, a WestchesterCounty superb of New York City. It was a perfect setting for Valvano, a New Yorker himself.
He was now five years out of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. He and Bob Lloyd had been the, starting backcourt of a good team. He was at the Garden State’s Elizabeth Armory scouting the state high school basketball tournament games being played there.
He was easy to recognize. He attracted crowds with his personality. He was entertaining. He had a very Italian look, and no doubt an accent. And as a young coach, he had been doing a masterful job coaching the Gaels. Of course he did have a very good big man in 6-foot-9 Jeff Ruland.
At halftime of the game that I was covering, I headed for the men’s room. Inside, facing the huge mirror, combing his Italian look, his hair, and talking to a friend behind him, was Valvano. When a sportswriter peer of mine from the Newark Star-Ledger state newspaper walked in, Valvano gave him a big hello, which led to my introduction.
As we walked out, Valvano flashed the big smile and said to me, “Hey Augie, great to me you. See you around.”
Augie? Well, I had figured he knew a lot of people and most likely had a problem with names, so I left it at that.
My game ended, I filled a rather short story about the teams from Bergen County. So I decided to stay and watch the last game. Valvano was still there, sat behind the press table probably taking verbal notes. After all, he was there scouting for Iona wasn’t he?
It was a crowded armory that night. There were some good players out there and plenty of college scouts. As I was leaving, I met up with Valvano, his assistant coach, and my sportswriter affiliate from the Star-Ledger. So he nodded, gave a short wave, smiled, and asked if we knew of any good restaurants around here. He and his assistant said they were hungry, and so did I, so the four of us got into the other sportswriter’s car because he said he knew the area.
He sure did, we were there in no time. He had already filed, so he drove us there and joined us. I remember it as the Garden Diner and Valvano said it looks nice to have you join us Augie. I corrected him and he laughed, said he always hung out with this guy named Augie who he played high school ball with. His assistant nodded and Valvano introduced us.
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We had a great time. The food was excellent, the service was five-star. Valvano said he loved diners that were diners. Those were his exact words. I asked him about Iona , how it looked for next season. He didn’t say much on the subject, so we started to talk about his years at good ole Rutgers. I told him I knew Bob Lloyd, that I once introduced him to an airline stewardess and they hit it off for awhile. Valvano said he didn’t know about that, but knew that Lloyd was the best foul shooter in the country when we played.
“Yeah, he once made 64 in a row,” Valvano said. “Me, I was the best assist man as well as a player who had a load of steals, but what really upset me is that they never kept track of that, and it even bothered Bob.”
His assistant got a kick out of that. And Valvano got a kick he said of him an Italian, meeting up with me, a Jew. He was also popular here as a former Rutgers player. With food in his stomach, Valvanoreally got into gear. He had that bubbly personality. He had a keen sense of humor.
“In ’67,” he said, we could play. Bob was the shooter, I was the point guard, and we had this forward, Bob Grecian, who signed on with the NBA (Milwaukee) Bucks.”
He added that they made it to the NIT at the Garden and lost in the semis to Walt Frazier and Southern Illinois, then we beat Marshall and George Stone in the third place game. Against Marshall, he said he remembered diving about six rows into the Rutgers section for a loose ball. It wasn’t very smart he said on his part, but for good ole Rutgers, he said he had to make this sacrifice, that he loved the school.
He said the real thrill was playing at the Garden, the Mecca of all arenas, that it was the thrill of a lifetime to remember, and I know I always will.
His assistant said Jim was in great shape, that at practice he can pass, defend, and the guys get a kick out of seeing him out there on the floor.
Valvano interrupted.
“Yeah,” he said, “but at Rutgers I got screwed by the NCAA. ” No assists, he mentioned again, they just don’t keep assists. Maybe someday they will. I had about a dozen in one game, and about six steals, and they don’t keep steals either.”
Then he wanted to know if we wanted to hear about his first job after Rutgers, coaching the Scarlet Knights freshmen team. We didn’t want to be there all night, so we passed.
Then we had desert. I still recall Valvano ordering apple pie with vanilla ice cream. He then reached for the check on the table and waved everybody off. It was a slam dunk for Jimmy V. We had a big handshake, a pleasant good bye, and the rest is history.
Then I realized why he didn’t want to say much about coaching Iona. About two weeks later, I read in the newspapers that Valvano had signed to become the new head basketball coach at North Carolina State. Iona was history. Did he know about this at the diner? I guess I’ll never know, for he never even uttered a hint, which meant he was at the Armory scouting for the Wolfpack behind closed doors.
But I sure did follow his entire Atlantic Coast Conference years from the beginning to the end. In that year, 1983, his NC State team was ranked 16th in the final regular season poll, and entered the NCAA tournament with a 20-10 overall record. But it upset Virginia and its 7-4 All-America Ralph Simpson twice, once in the ACC semifinals and again in the NCAAtournament second round. In the ACC title game, the Wolfpack downed North Carolina.
Six games into the NCAA tournament, it was all over but the final unthought of celebration in shocking top-ranked, star-studded, leaping Houston, 52-50, on a miraculous buzzer basket in the PIT. What followed was the anxious moment of Jimmy V rushing onto the court, looking for someone, anyone, to hug, to embrace. He was so overwhelmed, he couldn’t believe what had happened. He didn’t even remember to celebrate with apple pie and vanilla ice cream.
Better yet, this genuinely happy guy was now wearing an NCAA crown. He had gotten to the throne room that season ahead of such known coaches as DennyCrum, Lou Carnesecca, Terry Holland, Bob Knight, Jerry Tarkanian, Dean Smith, and Eddie Sutton.
At voting for Coach of the Year, there were four separate polls. Two named Carnesecca, one named Tarkanian, and one named Guy Lewis of runner-up Houston. It was almost like him being cheated out of assist and steals while playing for Rutgers, but he never brought that up.
But he was not the forgotten man. He will never be forgotten, that moment at the PIT in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will never be forgotten. That night at the televised ESPN“ESPY awards, in 1993 will always be remembered. Accompanied by relatives and friends, Valvano flew cross country seated alongside Duke head coach and close friend Mike Krzyzewski to the event held at the Kodiak Theater in Hollywood. It wasn’t long before he could lose his year-long fight against cancer.
It was sadden, long-time friend Dick Vitalwho walked the weakened Valvano up the eight steps to the podium, hugged him, and waited off to the side to then hug and walk Jimmy V back down the steps to an overwhelming standing meaningful ovation, and was assisted by Krzyzewski.
Once on the stage Valvano tried to support himself standing at the podium. He said courageous things, stirring things, heartening things, and then he caught a glimpse at the program’s producer signaling him that his time was almost up, and that he should cut his speech down. This was all the inspiration Jimmy V needed to let it all hang out.
“I have tumors all over my body,” he said, “and this guy’s giving me the screen. Ha, “Ah fanobla” he said in his best Italian, and the crowd roared.
It was about a minute later that he said in his best whole-hearted English, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up, God Bless You All.”
He was up on that stage for about 10 minutes, never missing a beat, always displaying his emotion, his passion. And the audience got caught up in the emotion, the passion.
He lost his life on April 28th of the annual Penn Relays in Philadelphia, a short time after he turned 47. I was in Phlly at the time covering the Penn Relays. It was sad, the Jimmy Valvano Foundation for Cancer had already been underway.
In 19 years as a head coach, he had an impressive overall record 346-212. He guided his teams to eight NCAAtournaments. He served as the athletic director at NC State from 1986-1989 when a recruiting and admissions scandal forced him to resign before a packed Wolfpackgymnasium that never stop applauding him.
But both ESPN and ABC didn’t hesitate to sign him as a sports broadcaster. He had that infectious
personality and a great knowledge of sports. He made those around him feel happy.
And he loved diners, diners that were diners.
