In the spring of 1983, North Carolina State baskeball coach Jim Valvano accomplished the impossible by beating the powerhouse University of Houston for the NCAA title. After pulling off the stunning upset 54-52 on a bizarre, buzzer-beating dunk off an air-ball shot from 30 feet, Valvano dashed onto the court with a smile, overcome with excitement and his arms outstretched. He was looking for someone to hug.
Fast forward 10 years to the spring of 1993 and Valvano was on stage at ESPN's inaugural ESPY Awards accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. He had the same smile. But something was gravely different. Valvano was sick - he had cancer, and was not expected to live much longer, and everyone knew.
But Valvano did not pity himself on that stage. He did not talk about the decades he would miss with his wife and three daughters. Instead, Valvano spoke about hope, cancer awareness and the strength to fight. He announced the creation of the V Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. He said he was going to fight to be back the next year to hand the Arthur Ashe award to the next recipient.
He died less than two months later. He was 47 years old.
Why do I bring this up?
Yesterday ESPN held the 14th annual ESPY awards. All day the network auctioned off sports items with the net proceeds going to the V Foundation. To date, the V Foundation has raised more than $50 million for cancer research, but still no cure.
One out of every four people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime. It is a statistical improbability that someone you care about will not be diagnosed at some point.
My grandmother died of breast cancer, but it was before I was born. It is difficult to miss someone you never knew. That was my cancer connection. That is until the mother of one of my closest friend's was diagnosed with leukemia a number of years ago. What do you tell your friend when his mother is facing a life-threatening disease? I had no idea. I still don't. Thankfully she ended up ok.
But my world was shaken. Cancer was real. It was not just something strangers had. My family and I were healthy. We would be fine I always thought. But cancer does not care. Cancer could strike at anytime.
Earlier this year my friend joined a cancer fundraiser at his college. I had never donated any money before in my life, but that ended right then.
Yesterday in ESPN's auction, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by people across the country on front row tickets to a Monday Night Football game, a Mario Lemieux autographed jersey, and hundreds of others items. I just graduated college so there was no way I could afford one of those items. But I donated what I could, in the name of my friend's mother.
By the time Valvano walked off the ESPY stage 14 years ago much of the audience was in tears. Of all the great things he said, this passage has been particularly impactful to many.
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day," he said. "We should do this every day of our lives. No. 1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. No. 2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. No. 3 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."
If you are interested please visit the V Foundation at jimmyv.org to donate or watch a video of Valvano's hearfelt ESPY speech.
Kevin Bruffy Lantern sports editor Kevin Bruffy can be reached for comment at bruffy.2@osu.edu.
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