[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2336-S2337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JAMES THOMAS VALVANO

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, March 10, 1996, marked what would 
have been James Thomas Valvano's 50th birthday. It has been almost 3 
years since the Queens, NY, native lost a rather public battle with 
cancer. The intent here, however, is not to eulogize. And any attempt 
to do so would pale in comparison to the impassioned eloquence of that 
offered on this floor by my distinguished friend and colleague from 
North Carolina, Mr. Helms on April 28, 1993. I did not know Jim 
Valvano--barely knew of him. But I am aware of the good work done by 
the foundation he founded in the final weeks of his life.
  On March 4, 1993, Jim Valvano was awarded the inaugural ESPN Arthur 
Ashe Award for Courage at the American Sports Awards. In an acceptance 
speech that was widely noted and shall long be remembered, he announced 
the creation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. With a 
Churchillian stoutness of spirit, Valvano set forth the mission:

       It may not save my life. It may save my children's lives. 
     It may save someone you love. . . . [I]t's motto is, ``Don't 
     give up, don't ever give up.'' That's what I'm going to do 
     every minute that I have left . . . so that someone else 
     might survive, might prosper and might actually be cured of 
     this dreaded disease. . . . I'm going to work as hard as I 
     can for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some 
     cures and some breakthroughs.

  Since that night the V Foundation has raised more than $2.3 million 
for that mission. Here are just some of the organizations and programs 
to which the V Foundation has contributed: $250,000 to fund a national 
public awareness campaign through the NCCR [National Coalition of 
Cancer Researchers]; $100,000 to fund Dr. Gerold Bepler at Duke 
Comprehensive Cancer Center; $100,000 to fund a 2-year grant for Dr. 
Phil Hochhauser at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York; 
$100,000 to the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center for construction of the 
Jim Valvano Cancer Research Lab; $100,000 to fund Dr. Leland Powell at 
the University of California at San Diego; $100,000 to fund the 
research of Dr. Thomas Gajewski at the University of Chicago 
Comprehensive Cancer Center; $29,000 to the Kosair Children's Hospital 
in Louisville, KY, for the construction of the Angela Valvano 
Classroom.
  Any basketball coach who carried a collection of Emily Dickinson 
poems in his gym bag and quoted Edna St. Vincent Millay and Ralph Waldo 
Emerson to sports reporters most certainly knew the impermanence of 
athletic achievements. Records are broken, victory banners fade, 
championship rings tarnish. But when all of these are long forgot, 
James Thomas Valvano will be remembered to the beneficiaries of the 
foundation that bears his name. And through them, to us all.

  Mr. President, I ask that the entire text of Jim Valvano's remarks at 
the 1993 ESPN Awards be printed in the Record.
  The remarks follow:

       Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the 
     lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the 
     Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into 
     broadcasting.
       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. But, as it said on the tape, 
     and I also don't have one of those things going with the cue 
     cards, so I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has 
     spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time is very precious 
     to me. I don't know how much I

[[Page S2337]]

     have left and I have some things that I would like to say. 
     Hopefully, at the end, I will have something that will be 
     important to other people, too.
       But, I can't help it. Now I'm fighting cancer, everybody 
     knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go 
     through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed 
     for me. As Dick said, I'm a very emotional and passionate 
     man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and 
     Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we 
     kiss, we love.
       When people say to me how do you get through life or each 
     day, it's the same thing. 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. 
     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.
       I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good 
     friend and a wonderful coach. People don't realize he's 10 
     times a better person than he is a coach, and we know he's a 
     great coach. He's meant a lot to me in these last 5 or 6 
     months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we 
     compete against each other as players. I coached against him 
     for 15 years, and I always have to think about what's 
     important in life to me are these three things. Where you 
     started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those 
     are the three things that I try to do every day. When I think 
     about getting up and giving a speech, I can't help it. I have 
     to remember the first speech I ever gave.
       I was coaching at Rutgers University, that was my first 
     job, oh, that's wonderful [reaction to applause], and I was 
     the freshmen coach. That's when freshmen played on freshmen 
     teams, and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou 
     Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn't like the very first job 
     you had? The very first time you stood in the lockerroom to 
     give a pep talk. That's a special place, the lockerroom, for 
     a coach to give a talk.
       So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi, and I read this 
     book called ``Commitment to Excellence'' by Vince Lombardi. 
     And in the book, Lombardi talked about the first time he 
     spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the lockerroom, 
     and they were perennial losers. I'm reading this and Lombardi 
     said he was thinking should it be a long talk, a short talk? 
     But he wanted to be emotional, so it would be brief. So 
     here's what I did. Normally you get in the lockerroom, I 
     don't know, 25 minutes, a half hour before the team takes the 
     field, you do your little X and O's, and then you give the 
     great Knute Rockne talk.
       We all do. Speech No. 84. You pull them right out, you get 
     ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one 
     I ever gave and I read this thing, Lombardi, what he said 
     was he didn't go in, he waited. His team was wondering 
     where is he? Where is this great coach? He's not there. 
     Ten minutes he's still not there. Three minutes before 
     they could take the field Lombardi comes in, bangs the 
     door open, and I think you all remember what great 
     presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he 
     walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at 
     the players. He said, ``All eyes on me.''
       I'm reading this in this book. I'm getting this picture of 
     Lombardi before his first game and he said, ``Gentlemen, we 
     will be successful this year, if you can focus on three 
     things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and 
     the Green Bay Packers.'' They knocked the walls down and the 
     rest was history. I said, that's beautiful. I'm going to do 
     that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. 
     That's it. I had it. Listen, I'm 21 years old. The kids I'm 
     coaching are 19, and I'm going to be the greatest coach in 
     the world, the next Lombardi.
       I'm practicing outside of the lockerroom and the managers 
     tell me you got to go in. Not yet, not yet, family, religion, 
     Rutgers basketball. All eyes on me. I got it, I got it. Then 
     finally he said, 3 minutes, I said fine. True story. I go to 
     knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don't 
     open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were 
     looking. Help the coach out, help me out. Now I did like 
     Lombardi, I walked back and forth, and I was going like that 
     with my arm getting the feeling back in. Finally I said, 
     ``Gentlemen, all eyes on me.'' These kids wanted to play, 
     they're 19. ``Let's go,'' I said. ``Gentlemen, we'll be 
     successful this year if you can focus on three things, and 
     three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green 
     Bay Packers. I told them. I did that. I remember that. I 
     remember where I came from.
       It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am 
     right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want 
     to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You 
     have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work 
     for it.
       I talked about my family, my family's so important. 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. That screen is flashing up there ``30 
     seconds'' like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got 
     tumors all over my body. I'm worried about some guy in the 
     back going 30 seconds? You got a lot, hey va fa napoli, 
     buddy. You got a lot.
       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 your 
     emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and 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.
       Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. 
     What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I 
     have left and to give, and maybe, some, some hope to others. 
     Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing, and AIDS, the 
     amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough, but is 
     significant. But if I told you it's 10 times the amount that 
     goes in for cancer research. I also told you that 500,000 
     people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one 
     in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet 
     somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the 
     background. I want to bring it back on the front table.
       We need your help. I need your help. We need money for 
     research. It may not save my life. I may save my children's 
     lives. It may save someone you love, and ESPN has been so 
     kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce 
     tonight, that with ESPN's support, which means what? Their 
     money and their dollars and their helping me, we are starting 
     the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research. And its motto is, 
     ``Don't give up, don't ever give up.'' That's what I'm going 
     to do every minute that I have left.
       I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you 
     see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me, too. 
     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.
       I can't thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. I'm 
     going to work as hard as I can for cancer research and 
     hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some 
     breakthroughs. I'd like to think, 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!
       I know I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and 
     I've 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.
       I thank you and God bless you all.

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