Click HERE to see Jimmy Valvano's 1993 ESPY Speech

Jimmy V Quotes


James Thomas Anthony "Jim" Valvano - Nickname Jimmy V
The following are his quotes from the March 3, 1993 ESPY Award Ceremony
(Valvano died on April 28, 1993)


25. “No matter what business you’re in, you can’t run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn’t matter how many games you’ve won.”

24. “And if you see me, smile and maybe give me a hug. That’s important to me too.”

23. “I talked about my family, my family’s so important.”

22. “I can’t tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever.”

21. “But try if you can to support, whether it’s AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper, and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease.”

20. “We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children’s life. It may save someone you love. And it’s very important.”

19. “Why shouldn’t I milk it? We’re an agricultural institution.” (after all his endorsement offers after North Carolina State won the NCAA Tournament)

18. “We win or the alumni bash in our teeth.” (explaining the dental plan at North Carolina State)

17. “People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who’s right here too.”

16. “We have a very intelligent team. I’ve had clubs that when you tell a guy to go back door, he leaves the gym. Or you tell the team you’re going to have a closed practice and eight guys don’t show up.”

15. “How do you go from where you are to where you wanna be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. And you have to be willing to work for it.”

14. “The difference between Namath and me is that when you make the money he makes, they say you’re ruggedly handsome. When you make the money I make, they say you have a big nose.”(on his alleged resemblance to Joe Namath)

13. “Now, I look at where I am now and I know what I wanna to do. What I would like to be able to do is to spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe some hope to others.”

12. “I’m going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!”

11. “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.”

10. “I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can’t trust em.”

9. “I made a ridiculous statement when I first went to North Carolina State. I said I know basketball down there was like life or death. It was very wrong. It’s more important.”

8. “There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It’s up to you to decide what to do with them.”

7. “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.”

6. “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.”

5. “It’s so important to know where you are.”

4. “I will thank God for the day and the moment I have.”

3. “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.”

2.“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”

1. “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”