Jim Valvano's Hall of Fame moment arrived Saturday

As hard as it might be to imagine, late NC State head coach Jim Valvano was an understated inclusion in this past weekend’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction and enshrinement ceremonies.

He wasn’t forgotten by any means, of course, as he joined other Wolfpack legends Everett Case, Kay Yow and David Thompson in receiving basketball’s highest honor.

It’s just that as the only posthumous inductee among the 12-member Class of 2023 that was filled with international NBA stars and a handful of his contemporaries, Valvano wasn’t the absolute center of attention, a place where his personality always shined the brightest.

He was represented by his family, widow Pam Valvano Strasser and daughters Jamie Valvano and Leanne Valvano, who accepted his burnt orange Hall of Fame blazer on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, Conn., and were on stage at Saturday’s enshrinement at the Symphony Theatre in Springfield, Mass. (Oldest daughter Nicole could not attend.)

Jim Valvano had plenty of support from former players Vinny Del Negro, a Springfield native who is a newly appointed member of the hall’s board of directors, and Dereck Whittenburg, now an associate athletics director at NC State. Men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts, retired Wolfpack Club Executive Director Bobby Purcell and current Associate Director Buzzy Correll were on hand, as well as a handful of donors.

Others with NC State ties attended the dedication of a Coach’s Circle granite bench in honor of 2004 Hall of Fame inductee Kay Yow, the longtime head coach of the Wolfpack Women, just outside the main entrance of the Basketball Hall of Fame, which is a landmark visible to all those driving by on I-91.

That group included former Wolfpack All-America Susan Yow, Kay’s youngest sister; former Board of Trustees member and lifetime Wolfpack Club donor Peaches Blank; and V Foundation for Cancer Research fundraiser and NC State graduate Becky Bumgardner; all of whom were instrumental in raising the money necessary to place Yow’s bench right beside the one dedicated to Valvano a year ago.

It was a joyous weekend and everyone from retired WNBA star and current head coach Becky Hammon to David Berson, the head of CBS Sports, mentioned the inspiration of Valvano’s 1983 team, his fight with cancer and ultimately the 30 years of work done by the V Foundation.

Almost all shared an aside for their respect of Valvano’s inspiration, his passion, his charitable legacy and his unrelenting love of the game, which has grown so much in television coverage and exposure in the 30 years since Valvano’s death.

There’s no doubt, however, that the star of the weekend was former Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade and the international presence basketball now has because of stars like Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki, Spain’s Pau Gasol and France’s Tony Parker and the influence of the first U.S. Women’s Olympic team from 1976.

The Enshrinement was dedicated to deep thinkers like Gregg Popovich, former Purdue coach Gene Keady and the smaller division coaches who toiled much longer than Valvano for their coaching due in the Hall of Fame: Gary Blair, Gene Bess and David Hixon.

Never in his coaching career was Valvano ever overshadowed, even when he didn’t have the best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference or the NCAA Tournament or, heck, even when he didn’t have a team in the NCAA Tournament.

He never took a backseat to anyone.

Still, he was more of an aside than a featured star, a throwback to the real beginnings of March Madness, a funnyman with a poignant story and a lasting legacy.

Because growing the game of basketball was always his passion and spreading the word globally about the charitable work that can be done through the game with its most exciting and accomplished players, Jim Valvano would have loved it.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].