Jim Valvano

1946–1993 · American basketball coach & broadcaster

Jim Valvano coached North Carolina State from 1980 to 1990 and is best remembered for 1983, when a team nobody rated beat Houston for the national championship and he ran around the floor looking for someone to hug. He moved to broadcasting with ESPN and ABC afterwards and won a CableACE award for it. In June 1992 he was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. He gave this speech nine months later and died on 28 April 1993, aged 47 — eight weeks after founding the charity that now carries the line.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“Don't give up. Don't ever give up.”

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Not actually Jim Valvano

Often misattributed to Jim Valvano

Famous lines widely pinned on Jim Valvano that we’ve traced to someone else.

“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit”

actually Albert Schweitzer

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