Jim Valvano’s never-give-up spirit lives on in his middle daughter | On Sports

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Toward the end of his poignant “don’t ever give up” speech on March 4, 1993, Jim Valvano announced he was launching the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. “It may not save my life,’’ the famed basketball coach and ESPN analyst told a nationally televised audience of millions that memorable night. “It may save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love.”

Valvano died 55 days later, but his words lived on. And wound up being prophetic. His foundation has raised more than $500 million since his courageous public goodbye, and the dividends have been priceless. Countless lives have indeed been saved, including the life of his middle daughter, Jamie.

“Those words about his children’s lives didn’t register with me that night,’’ said Jamie Valvano, who will be the featured speaker at the Victory Through Adversity fundraising dinner May 31 at the Italian American Community Center in Gates. “I was 20 years old. I was healthy. I was indestructible. But 13 years later, I discovered a lump in my breast. And thanks to the research funded by my father’s foundation, I’m alive today. So, it did wind up saving one of his kids’ lives. How crazy good is that?”

Research helped doctors determine that Jamie had inherited a gene that had caused her father’s cancer — a mutation still undiscovered when he was diagnosed. As a result, her oncologist – the same one who had tended to her dad — recommended genetic testing and was able to develop a specific plan to eradicate her cancer.

It not only saved her life but gave her a new purpose. After teaching middle school English for a dozen years, Jamie decided to dedicate herself to inspiring others. In addition to becoming more involved in the V Foundation, she’s embarked on a public speaking career in order to reach a wider audience.

She is motivated by lessons learned from her ebullient dad. She has his same, effervescent personality. She says his public persona matched his private persona. Jimmy V the fun-loving coach was similar to Jimmy V the fun-loving dad.

“Dad definitely was a people person; a joy to be around,’’ she said. “He had this boundless energy and insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge. He found every person’s story interesting, and he had an ability to connect with everyone he met. It truly was a gift.”

Jamie said her father was a voracious reader. She talked about how he would spend summers re-reading the plays of Shakespeare, and how poetry was a big thing in the Valvano household. At the dinner table with his wife and three daughters, he often would quote lines from Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and E.E. Cummings. One his favorite quotations came from Olympic pole vaulter Bob Richards, who said: “Every day ordinary people do extraordinary things. That is why the Lord made so many of us ordinary.”

“My dad identified three things in order for us to live extraordinary lives,’’ Jamie said. “First off, we need to have dreams; ambitions for ourselves. Secondly, we need to have a supportive, unified team. So much of our success is predicated on the people we have in our lives. And thirdly, you have to learn how to persevere. You have to keep plugging along despite the adversity. You have to keep believing that dreams can come true and miracles can happen if you refuse to give up.”

Jamie was in the arena in Albuquerque, New Mexico the night of April 4, 1983, when a North Carolina State team coached by her dad beat Houston in one of the most improbable upsets in college basketball and sports history. She can still see the euphoric look on his face when he climbed the ladder to cut down the net.

Now, four decades later, a daughter who never played sports is trying to help young people experience their net-cutting moments in life. And that’s what’s bringing her to Rochester, as part of a fundraising effort by fellow cancer survivor and veteran coach Chris Bianchi to launch a basketball academy for seventh- and eighth-grade girls in Monroe County.

“I can’t think of a better person than Jamie to convey what we’re trying to start here,’’ said Bianchi, whose coaching career spans three decades and includes successful stints at Nazareth Academy, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Dansville, Pittsford, Webster-Schroeder, and Franklin High Schools. “I told her this is a full-circle moment for me because her dad’s achievements and courage are what inspired me to go into coaching and to deal with the adversities I’ve faced in my career and my life.”

They can thank Chris’s son, Zane, for bringing them together. A self-described sports nut, Zane came up with the idea of starting a podcast as an 11-year-old during the COVID lockdown, and Jamie was one of the guests who made an appearance.

“That’s when the seed for all of this was planted,’’ she said. “Zane was adorable. And that’s when I learned that Chris was a survivor, too – not only of cancer, but of a life-threatening heart attack. So, we shared survivorship, and we stayed in touch through the years, and when he approached me about this dinner, I was totally onboard.”

Bianchi has ambitious goals for his academy, which will provide a professional-grade developmental home for young athletes without financial barriers. In partnership with Bianchi’s own company (Red Penguin Athletics, L.L.C.) and Greater Rochester Area Basketball (GRAB), it will focus on more than just court skills. Academic monitoring, college-prep seminars, nutrition education, and ACL/MCL injury prevention are among services that will be provided.

As the Victory Through Adversity theme suggests, developing skills necessary to cope with life’s challenges will be a major emphasis.

“I love the way Chris has geared this to young people,’’ Jamie said. “As a former teacher I realize the importance of planting these seeds early. You’re telling these young women, let me give you the tools and inspire you, and surround you with a team that will help you succeed not only on the court, but in life. Everybody is dealing with something. We need to teach them that you will face adversity — it’s an inevitable part of the human condition — but we can show you how overcome it. We can help you realize those cut-down-the-net moments.”

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.