ESPN honors former Hopkins coach
Issue date: 12/6/07
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Hopkins is known as a breeding ground for successful professionals. Whether these professionals are doctors, academics, researchers, engineers or lacrosse players, Hopkins has gained a reputation for placing highly skilled people into high-ranking workforce positions. But is Hopkins also a breeding ground for legendary basketball coaches?
Initial research breeds one positive result. Can you guess who it is? I'll give you three clues.
He coached his team to an upset victory in the 1983 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game. At the 1993 ESPY Awards he gave one of the most noteworthy and memorable speeches by any sports figure. He has a cancer research foundation established in his memory, which to date has raised over $70 million.
The man is James "Jim" Valvano - affectionately referred to by sports junkies as Jimmy V. Valvano. He was the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University during the 1980s, winning a national championship and amassing 209 wins. He had several head coaching stops, including Bucknell, Iona and Hopkins.
Before I go on talking about how neat it is that this legendary basketball coach got his start at Hopkins, I want to bring attention to the fact that the first annual Jimmy V Week recently took place from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4. Jimmy V Week was a "week-long initiative featuring special content across ESPN platforms and programs to drive awareness of and donations to The V [cancer] Foundation." The week was kicked off with an airing of Jimmy V.'s legendary 1993 speech at the first ESPY Awards. Before you proceed to read the rest of this column, I strongly encourage you to watch the speech in its entirety on YouTube. It will take 10 minutes, and I guarantee you it will be ten of the most reflective and emotionally gripping minutes of your week.
For those of you deterred by the speech's length, try to remember the last time someone accepting an award made a speech that lasted longer than "I want to thank God, my family and my agent." This should immediately tell you how significant this speech is. Valvano, who was dying from terminal bone cancer, knew that "time was very precious." His speech was special; not because it was a sympathetic or a somber tearjerker, but because of how he beamed about how happy he was to still be alive and how fortunate he was that he could still cherish those around him.
Initial research breeds one positive result. Can you guess who it is? I'll give you three clues.
He coached his team to an upset victory in the 1983 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game. At the 1993 ESPY Awards he gave one of the most noteworthy and memorable speeches by any sports figure. He has a cancer research foundation established in his memory, which to date has raised over $70 million.
The man is James "Jim" Valvano - affectionately referred to by sports junkies as Jimmy V. Valvano. He was the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University during the 1980s, winning a national championship and amassing 209 wins. He had several head coaching stops, including Bucknell, Iona and Hopkins.
Before I go on talking about how neat it is that this legendary basketball coach got his start at Hopkins, I want to bring attention to the fact that the first annual Jimmy V Week recently took place from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4. Jimmy V Week was a "week-long initiative featuring special content across ESPN platforms and programs to drive awareness of and donations to The V [cancer] Foundation." The week was kicked off with an airing of Jimmy V.'s legendary 1993 speech at the first ESPY Awards. Before you proceed to read the rest of this column, I strongly encourage you to watch the speech in its entirety on YouTube. It will take 10 minutes, and I guarantee you it will be ten of the most reflective and emotionally gripping minutes of your week.
For those of you deterred by the speech's length, try to remember the last time someone accepting an award made a speech that lasted longer than "I want to thank God, my family and my agent." This should immediately tell you how significant this speech is. Valvano, who was dying from terminal bone cancer, knew that "time was very precious." His speech was special; not because it was a sympathetic or a somber tearjerker, but because of how he beamed about how happy he was to still be alive and how fortunate he was that he could still cherish those around him.
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