Laugh. Think. Cry.

V himself had said that team wasn’t very good.

After a 6-8 conference record, State was seeded sixth for the 1987 ACC Tournament in Landover. But somehow – not unlike a few years earlier on an even bigger stage – Jim Valvano’s Cardiac Pack had survived and advanced to the title game, where they would face top-seeded Carolina, who had steamrolled through the conference to an unblemished 14-0 record. Trailing the Tar Heels 67-66 with only 14 seconds remaining, Vinny Del Negro stepped to the free throw line in the Capital Centre and coolly drained two foul shots for the 68-67 victory.

I wasn’t yet eight years old that Sunday afternoon, but being a State fan had proven bountiful, I decided. In the days and weeks that followed, I relived that scenario countless times on my steep, dogleg-right driveway so typical of the North Carolina foothills, shooting free throws on a goal that measured about 12 feet on the low side while only around nine on the high side.

I’m much older now, and as Davidson tips off against West Virginia in the first game of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, I’m reticent of the fact that many of the current State students weren’t even alive that afternoon on March 8, 1987, when Del Negro sealed State’s tenth ACC title. At that time, we tied Carolina and bested Duke’s total by three. That title stands still as State’s last one, which is even more damnable considering Carolina has since added seven more conference titles, as well as two national titles, while Duke has added nine more conference titles and three national titles. Meanwhile, during the two decades since we last hung a banner, the N.C. State basketball program has stubbornly endured, insufferably, through the indignity of scandal, followed by complete irrelevance, and even still continues its struggle towards recovery.

The real shame of it all is that an entire generation of State fans knows of Jim Valvano only through his legacy. Laugh, think, cry.

It’s important that even the young generation of State fans understands why Jimmy V was such an endearing – and polarizing – personality for those of us that can never remember being anything but a State fan. But it’s not a romantic history; in fact, it’s quite tragic.

Jimmy V built his legend by winning the most remarkable national title and two ACC titles while at State, but it wasn’t enough to prevent his forced resignation from the team he’d once said he wanted to coach until he died – and tragically, he didn’t miss by much.

To be honest, I don’t completely understand it even now, but I no longer suffer the same naïveté as that kid winning championships in his driveway, so by no means would I defend V’s absolute innocence. After all, under his direction, the athletic department had demonstrated inadequate oversight and had lacked accountability – poor qualities, at best, for a leader. These mistakes weren’t – and aren’t – exclusive to Raleigh. In fact, it took a series of factors to even make it an irrecoverable issue.

Fueled by intense mistrust by the university’s academic community towards Valvano’s athletic department, an impossible power struggle had been borne. The consensus among the academics was that Valvano’s basketball program had become uncontrollable and the university would be far better off without it. To their defense, they had a valid point: State’s admissions process for athletes had indeed become comical, considering one of State’s primary recruits, Chris Washburn, had scored only a 470 on his SAT, while eight of Valvano’s recruits over the years had scored under 600.

This strife remained internal, however, until after a vile, poorly written book (which I refuse to even name here, in the fear it would generate curiosity), rife with inaccuracies and egregious, unfounded accusations of corruption within Valvano’s program triggered both the NCAA investigation and then the independent Poole Commission report that ultimately brought an end to State’s national prominence. The four-person Poole Commission investigated the book’s accusations but uncovered only minor infractions, and ultimately found that Valvano’s actions had “violated the spirit, but not the letter of the law.” However, with the lessons from the scandal at Southern Methodist still fresh, over the next six months a variety of investigations into Valvano were conducted, including one by the North Carolina Attorney General’s office.

Yet not one of these investigations unearthed a single academic or financial infraction within the program. Had anything truly damaging been uncovered, State would have undoubtedly faced far more intense sanctions, including a crippling TV ban. But the NCAA had been satisfied with the university’s internal corrective and punitive actions for the minor violations the Poole Commission had uncovered, which had included tighter restrictions over ticket and shoe distributions to players, limitations of off-campus recruiting visits, Valvano’s resignation as athletic director, and most crippling, a reduction in scholarships for three years. The NCAA also leveled the maximum two-year probation and barred State from participating in the 1990 NCAA Tournament (at 6-8 in the ACC, we wouldn’t have made it anyway).

At Carolina or Duke, that would have been the end of it. Not a single employee on Valvano’s staff had been found to have intentionally violated any rules or laws, but Valvano had committed the seemingly-treacherous act of failing to hold those in his charge accountable. He was viewed as a man who had lost institutional control, a most unrecoverable sin in NCAA terms. Valvano wasn’t immediately dismissed, but a vote of confidence by the chancellor was declined. This left an opening for the factor that ultimately brought N.C. State’s long reign of national prominence to an end – and not with a bang, but a whimper.

This isn’t a story of any ridiculous Carolina conspiracy or even typical media bias; it was far less impressive. It was nothing beyond irresponsible “journalism” at the area’s two largest news outlets, which had launched vicious attacks and spewed relentless vitriol upon Valvano using baseless, unmerited facts and personal bias to such an extent that it couldn’t have been anything other than opportunism at its absolute worst. Even State’s student newspaper joined the popular character assassination of Jim Valvano, who eventually resigned under intense scrutiny and pressure in April 1990.

I was 11 years old in April 1990 when the era of State basketball during which I’d grown up, the only one I knew, came to an end. Now what?

V returned to Reynolds one last time on February 21, 1993, for the 10-year commemoration of his Cardiac Pack’s 1983 championship, and by then he was dying of metastatic bone cancer. As I watched on TV, a lump moved into my stomach during halftime of that Duke game as he left us with that indelible motto to which every State fan can readily and intimately relate: Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.

Two weeks later at the ESPYs – he was so weak that night that his very close friends, Dick Vitale and Coach K, had to help him on the stairs – he repeated those magnificent words from his Reynolds speech, and they’ve been preserved for generations to come through replays during the annual Jimmy V Classic on ESPN. The singular part of his ESPY speech that best summed up why he was such a dynamic presence for State fans wasn’t his statement on mind, heart, and soul, but rather a few minutes before, when he’d gone over his allotted time for his speech: “They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen. I got tumors all over my body and I’m worried about some guy in the back going ‘30 seconds?’”

Fifteen years later that still gets me, every time.

I was very young when his tenure at State came to an inappropriate and unceremonious end, but even then I was acutely aware of his legacy. I really wish State was the staple team of the Jimmy V Classic, but the truth is that the RBC Center will house Les Robinson Court before this university officially promotes Jimmy V. I guess you can see that I’m older and far more cynical now, but I’m still left searching for answers as to how a man who had once drawn so much ire, all that venom, from so many, could now be revered for offering such a redeeming and lasting message.

Why is it that even now, when I watch his ESPY speech each December – like I am now – I’m left nostalgic for an era of State basketball that I hardly remember, and even more ironic, an era that bears the ultimate responsibility for having created the darkest years of State’s rich basketball heritage?

Maybe I’m not the right one to adequately answer why V’s legacy still rings so proudly among us, especially for those of us keenly aware of the ramifications of his indiscriminate oversight while at State. Perhaps it’s quite simply that his message transcends the very essence, the indelible persona, of what it requires to be a State fan: hope.

For the last twenty years, hope has defined us.

After all, it’s all we’ve had.

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

Fans Flashback General NCS Basketball Required Reading Tradition

112 Responses to Laugh. Think. Cry.

  1. WV Wolf 12/09/2008 at 11:12 PM #

    Nice entry LRM.

    Perhaps some bridges are being repaired as the university has made two big steps in working directly with the V Foundation. One is holding the 2009 Celebrity Golf Classic at the new golf course on Centennial Campus and the new convention center http://www.golfclassic.org, the other is the million dollar grant for the Jimmy V-NC State University Cancer Therapeutics Training Program http://www.ncsu.edu/partners/jimmyv/index.php

  2. turfpack 12/09/2008 at 11:36 PM #

    Wufpax01- Your statemant is as accurate as it gets of the last 20years.
    LRM-Great job explaining the mess that is N.C.STATE,but why we still love it so.I’m 48 years old and was at State during the V years.
    He had a love and passion for the game like no other person I have ever seen, he did care for his players and they loved him for it.
    His success angered certin people in the university and around the area.
    I actually found the old cassette tapes from the 83 Championship run and listen to them today.MAN-it brought back memories WALLY & GARY
    calling the games.
    I wonder what Wally or Gary would think about the last 20yrs of the program.
    I watched the half time speak of coach V’s ESPY speech tonight and had to fight back tears -also explain to my daughter why daddy’s crying watching some man on T.V. I thought for a minute and said because he would never give up……but it looks like we DID…..would like to say more…..SORRY IT STILL HURTS…….sorry guys thats all I got.

  3. packpowerfan 12/10/2008 at 12:06 AM #

    My father was a junior in ’83, and growing up, all I wanted was to be a part of it. I have an old LP, handed down by my dad, of key moments from the ACCT and NCAAT that began my walk toward Raleigh when I was probably around 7 or 8. From the first day I heard “The game is over! The glass slipper fits! Cinderella has done it! The Wolfpack have won the national championship!”, I was hooked. I learned everything I could, backwards and forwards. I filled my head with Everett Case, the Dixie Classic, the birth of the ACC, Stormin’ Norman Sloan, David Thompson, “The Greatest College Basketball Game Ever Played (1974 ACC Championship NCSU – MD)”, Tommy Burleson, the undersized leap of faith in Monte Towe, the 1973 probation, Thompson, with a concussion, ending the UCLA dynasty in 1974, Lowe and Bailey nearly leaving with Sloan for UF, 1983 in general, and finishing up through Fire and Ice — Monroe and Corchiani. I cried like a baby the first time I heard V in Reynolds “Cancer may take my body, and all my physical abilities, but it can never touch my soul”. I bought every book, DVD and tape that would connect me to that truly magical time in NC State history.

    Now onto the grim reality of the present.

    I have been, and always will be, a young member of the “lunatic fringe” that we hold so dear. Last year, I held a student meeting to discuss the shortcomings of the athletics department (all our old Foulup ramblings). We discussed the traditions, history, the faces of the University. Following the meeting, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the Technician, who then reported their story directly to Fowler himself. He replied as such:

    “I was never aware that there was a meeting of this sort, and if there is an issue, I’ll be more than happy to discuss it with him.”

    Of course, there was never a response when I contacted him or his representatives, and as this semester has passed, things have quieted. HOWEVER, for all of you golden oldies out there who distress over current students and our connection to the past, there are HEAVY rumblings within the student body. I know this is probably nothing new, as I’m sure the student body is ALWAYS making noise about something, but I’m confident that we’re going to make some sort of push to recognize the tradition of OUR SCHOOL. Turner began the athletics tumble and Oblinger has all but completely eliminated the tradition and history of the University, in accordance to “bringing us to UNX’s level”. I never will “hate” NCSU, but I am damned angry with it; and I strongly believe that for someone like myself whose ENTIRE TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF LIFE has been NCSU mediocrity, I am deserving of some hope.

    RIP COACH V — Oh what we would give for one ounce of your CHARISMA, DETERMINATION, and COURAGE back in Raleigh…

  4. ncsu_kappa 12/10/2008 at 2:21 AM #

    Here’s to Hope!

    I will start by saying that I still get goose bumps when I re-watch the espy speech or any other time Jimmy V has been put in front of a camera. I can’t imagine a person having any more or a better mix of charm and charisma. Seriously, if he had any more I might hate his guts.

    I am a relatively new school guy and even though I find that I disagree with most of the posters here when it comes to analysis behind the success or lack their of in our football and basketball programs. However, I still come to StateFans at least every other day because we share so many bigger things in common. Starting with our love, passion, and hope for our University’s academic and athletic programs and our admiration for Jimmy V. I never met the man but I can say that I have spent hours watching him on youtube. My friends in Ohio tell me how they watch the speech every year on ESPN because of how proudly I wear NC State on my sleeve.

    With that said, you may wonder why I come back to StateFans so often if disagree with most of the posters on here. Especially when they chastise you for sharing a difference of opinion, you all know who you are. The answer is simple, I feel privileged to have a place I can come to consistently to find people as passionate about State as I am. And I, like you, feel as though I am State’s biggest fan. Wait forgive my blasphemy. I meant second, right behind the V-man.

    Forgive the length

  5. 4in12 12/10/2008 at 8:03 AM #

    Are naming rights available for the court at the RBC Center? I’m guessing that there are enough people willing to donate to raise the green needed to name the court after V. That would chap some asses in Raleigh.

  6. vtpackfan 12/10/2008 at 8:19 AM #

    I beleive firmly that everything in V’s life happened for a reason. The speech in Reynolds resonates so profoundly for all the reasons noted above, including the way he was scorned into leaving. It’s all apart of his life, not mine and I find it inspirational to admire his courage and grace throughout everything.

    As for after he left there has been nothing left to do but laugh and cry at the state of athletics @ State since there has been lapses of thinking envolved with leadership at the tippy top.

  7. SEAT.5.F.2 12/10/2008 at 8:28 AM #

    We are irrelevant as a program so we have to accept that we are the only group of people who would care to see us in the V Classic. It would be best for them to get as much raised for cancer research as possible so let them invite teams that are intruiging.

    I wouldn’t be to geeked out in the V Golf tourney invited a bunch of V’s schoolmates and family members exclusively.

  8. Sweet jumper 12/10/2008 at 8:34 AM #

    I have always liked the ring of Case Court and The V Dome. I am still working on something for Sloan. Any ideas?

  9. Alpha Wolf 12/10/2008 at 10:10 AM #

    With that said, you may wonder why I come back to StateFans so often if disagree with most of the posters on here. Especially when they chastise you for sharing a difference of opinion, you all know who you are.

    Where there is passion, there are bound to be passionate disagreements. The only requirement here is that folks remain civil and for the most part that’s the way that it is.

    Heck, people disagree with me here and more often than not, I learn something. If it’s nothing more than I don’t know everything or that I don’t know what I am talking about, then that’s the way that it is.

    Dissenting opinions are always welcomed, but anyone who comes with one needs to be prepared to back it up.

  10. packattack95 12/10/2008 at 10:12 AM #

    Awesome piece LRM! I was 13 years old in 1987, the height of my NC State and ACC interest. I remember that game very well, but I stick to the quote that you wrote:

    “Why is it that even now, when I watch his ESPY speech each December – like I am now – I’m left nostalgic for an era of State basketball that I hardly remember”

    I hardly remember NC State as a national power in the 80’s even though was old enough to remember. What a shame….

  11. wufpaxno1 12/10/2008 at 10:23 AM #

    Sweet Jumper:

    How about the Sloan Suite for the largest of the Luxury Boxes?

    Turf:

    Thanks for the props, LRM really tugged at my heart stings with this one. Sure would like a copy of the audio cassette of Wally and Gary, I would be willing to trade you a VHS copy of the championship game along with most of the run through the ’83 ACC Tourney and NCAA Tourney. I am missing a couple of the games, the tape was damaged, but I do have most of it. The UNC game in the ACC is my favorite, even more so then the Houston game. The Pepperdine game is pretty amazing too.

  12. Sweet jumper 12/10/2008 at 10:29 AM #

    wufpaxno1-Thanks, The Sloan Suites works for me.

  13. triadwolf 12/10/2008 at 10:39 AM #

    Nice post LRM. I am an 89 grad and I don’t think there’s any way I could have imagined at that time what the next 20 years would bring. At this time every year when Jimmy reappears, I end up going through every emotion when recalling his time here. I love the Wolfpack but I am still ashamed of how the administration treat(ed) V. I visit this site almost every day and am mostly a silent member of the lunatic fringe, but this topic makes it difficult to stay in the shadows.

    It’d be nice if someone would start an independant fundraising campaign that would establish a trust to buy and maintain the naming rights to the basketball court in V’s name. If the funding was strong enough our money hungary administration couldn’t resist no matter what name goes on the court. Ideally this should happen via the WPC and take advantage of their proven ability to raise money. It’s probably a pipe dream, but we all have seen what can happen if you believe.

  14. RSP123 12/10/2008 at 10:40 AM #

    Long-time reader. First time poster. I can share many personal memories of Pack bball, but clearly the days of my being a student @ State while V was coach were electric. I
    have fond memories of going to practices after my Tu-Th classes and watching V and company at work. I will always remember him going to each player as they were stretching and asking each about a family member or schoolwork. Doesn’t sound like a man who didn’t care. My memories date
    back to Wally and Gary, Norm and Sotella Long singing the national anthem, Holiday DoubleHeader (Duke & State hosting). Anyway, enough of memory lane. Thanks for allowing me to share. It is time for State bball to start making new positive memories now! Go State!

  15. RedTerror29 12/10/2008 at 10:40 AM #

    My first memories of State basketball were when we shared the mark for most conference championships with Carolina and Duke.

    Giving V the honors he deserves would require an implicit admission of guilt by the administration, and Lord knows they would never do that willingly.

  16. mwcric 12/10/2008 at 10:51 AM #

    As a communications guy by trade, I’ve often fantasized about writing an investigative look back at the whole debacle with the advantage of 20+ years of hindsight and cooler heads. I would love to document and debunk (or to be fair, reaffirm as the case may be) every scrap of media attention from this time. I would especially love to track down every name and face associated with one of the most slanderous books ever produced by a legitimate publisher and see what they have to say all these years later. It just seems that something needs to be done to really close this chapter of the school’s history. I daresay most of us don’t believe we’ve ever had that real sense of proper closure.

    Fantasy #2: To win the Mega Millions lottery – like $200 million – and offer $190 million of it to NCSU…as long as they named the RBC Center court after V.

  17. Noah 12/10/2008 at 10:52 AM #

    I’m not going to wade into the Vietnam that is the argument over recognizing Jim Valvano. It’s never going to end, all of the information you need isn’t in front of you and it really doesn’t matter.

    BUT…two things about old teams —

    1) That 1987 State team was better than the 6-8 record it posted (effing Kenny Drummond). Future NBA players included Shackleford, Chucky Brown, Brian Howard, and Vinny Del Negro.

    It also included Parade All-Americans in Andy Kennedy, Walker Lambiotte and Mike Giomi. Those were three guys who became very familiar with the NCAA’s transfer rules and can talk a great deal about chemistry and problems with coaches.

    Kennedy transferred to UAB, became a prolific scorer and then shredded his knee. Now, he’s one of the more…um…questionable assistant coaches on the recruiting scene.

    Lambiotte transferred to Northwestern, got a great education, and averaged about 20 ppg against Big-10 competition.

    Giomi transferred in from IU after being a target of Bob Knight’s ire. I think he ended up playing in Australia for awhile.

    Kennedy and Lambiotte both had a role to play here. Maybe they weren’t ever going to be stars, but that was the first year of the three-point line and both were outstanding shooters. For a variety of reasons, both ended up on the outside looking in and neither played a single minute in the ACC tournament.

    The 1987 team was not a strong shooting team. Bennie Bolton was really the only outside shooter and he was pretty inconsistent. Kennedy and Lambiotte should have been able to see some reserve duty to help open things up.

    Also, after Drummond quit, Del Negro assumed the PG role. Del Negro had managed to work his way into the backup PG role the year before by the end of the season and saw some quality minutes in the 86 NCAA tournament.

    The really weird thing was that we got hot AFTER Del Negro was moved to shooting guard. The next year, QJ and then Corchiani would take over the PG role and Del Negro would continue to play well at the shooting guard spot. Del Negro was a good PG in high school and in the NBA, but not in college. I always thought that was strange.

    That team SHOULD have been better and more consistent than it was. There were major chemistry problems. I’ll say no more.

    2) That 1987 Carolina team and the 1984 UNC team were arguably the best teams to never win a national title.

    The 1984 team had Jordan, Daugherty, Perkins, and Kenny Smith. They at least had the excuse of Smith’s broken wrist as to why they were not at full-speed at the end.

    The 1987 team was unreal. Scott Williams, JR Reid, Joe Wolf, Dave Popson, Kenny Smith, Jeff Lebo…with quality college players like Kevin Madden and Ranzino Smith backing them up. Seems like Syracuse beat them in the NCAA tournament.

    Wolf (13th overall), Reid (5th), and Smith (6th) were all first round picks. Williams was undrafted, but played about 10 years. Popson was a fourth-round pick. Lebo was a second, I think.

    I don’t even know if UCLA had teams that were that talented.

  18. Alpha Wolf 12/10/2008 at 10:57 AM #

    I was 12 in the 1973-74 season, and that was the best year of my life as a sports fan. You guys who have never had a year where NC State was at the top of the heap and beat *good* UNC teams six straight times really don’t know what you missed…especially when you’re a kid and basketball is next to only life and death.

    Fast forward to college and I was a junior in 1983 and again, for different reasons, it was another awesome time to be an NC State fan. The team was far better than people gave it credit for. The 1983 boys had a lot of injuries mid-season and at the very end of the year, they were all back. They absolutely demolished a Wake Forest squad the last game of the year and then headed off to the ACC tournament to face Jordan and company…the defending national champions.

    Calling Ralph Sampson “7-Up” to his face was a great moment for me. He looked surprised and I added “never had it, never will” – their slogan at the time. He shot me a bird. I loved it.

    Ralph was a vile player, IMO, he cussed, spit and clawed and scowled a lot when he was challenged. Seeing NC State vanquish him was utter joy.

    The night we beat Houston, my roomate and I lived over by Broughton High and we took our rickety foam-rubber college boy couch over to the Brickyard whereby we tossed it onto the bonfire. WHOOSH! We got back the next morning at dawn and realized we had nowhere to sit. And no money. But damnit, NC State WAS National Champion — and we took it away from UNC.

    I still wish UGA had not beaten UNC in the regional finals that year. Putting the Heels out of it in the Final Four would have been the only possible way that whole tournament could have been better for NCSU.

  19. Noah 12/10/2008 at 11:15 AM #

    By playing UGa instead of UNC, we were able to coast to a pretty easy victory. We were up something like 18 points in the second half, so we were pretty fresh for Houston.

    I’m very happy it went down EXACTLY the way it happened.

  20. SEAT.5.F.2 12/10/2008 at 11:18 AM #

    I don’t even know if UCLA had teams that were that talented.

    I know they had a better coach

  21. Ed89 12/10/2008 at 11:26 AM #

    ^^^Kennedy transferred to UAB, became a prolific scorer and then shredded his knee. Now, he’s one of the more…um…questionable assistant coaches on the recruiting scene.

    Isn’t Kennedy the HEAD Coach at Ole Miss (after being the interim Head Coach at Cincinnati)?? Regardless, Great post LRM. I hold out hope that NC State will again rise to national prominence in college basketball. While he had his faults, Jimmy V did great things for NC State and college basketball. He should be recognized, but it may never happen.

  22. Alpha Wolf 12/10/2008 at 11:39 AM #

    Good point, Noah. That Georgia game was the only one in that whole tournament that didn’t have me about to die of a heart attack.

  23. highstick 12/10/2008 at 11:43 AM #

    Noah, wasn’t Kevin Madden the Rhodes Scholar from UNC? LOL!

    I posted this Saturday on another thread, but I asked some younger alumni on the light rail Saturday after the Davidson game if they ever remembered a successful State basketball team and the answer was a “resounding no”! I think this thread emphasizes “why not”! It’s truly a shame that this continues to go on and people don’t really know the true story about V, just what the jerk wrote!

  24. packalum44 12/10/2008 at 11:54 AM #

    “and worse the younger generation of Tarheel Nation knows none of that, they belittle State because they never knew the times when NC State Basketball was to be feared.”

    This is all too true. Even adults in their early 30s don’t know about our history. Just goes to show how much time has passed. We will rise again and we will enjoy it more than any fans on earth can ever imagine. Just as I have posted about how our football team builds character through adversity, so too do NC State fans. Our character, pride, and our perpetual hope for improvement and better days are unmatched.

  25. Gene 12/10/2008 at 12:01 PM #

    “Jimmy V did great things for NC State and college basketball. ”

    Eh…Valvano was a good coach, but I think the destruction of our basketball program after his departure puts him a bit of a pedestal versus Sloan and/or Case…

    I think Sloan had a bigger impact on our program, because we were falling fast after Case’s departure and he resurrected the program.

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