Jimmy Valvano was a fighter. His coaching led to two National Championships. He always inspired his players to be at their very best. Winning NCAA tournaments for State was nothing short of a miracle. Their coach was emphatic about his team, and it's ability to do anything. All they needed to do was just put their minds to it. As seasons passed, Jim kept coaching North Carolina State basketball, but during his tenure, he contracted cancer. Jim Valvano was about to have the fight of his life.
He passed away in 1993 of cancer after delivering a touching, memorable speech at the ESPY Awards.
The inaugural Classic tipped off in 1995.
Here's a portion of Valvano's famous speech: "I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.
"I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever"
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you 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 something special.” Jimmy Valvano.
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