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Jim Valvano (James Thomas Anthony Valvano)

(1946 – 1993) Nicknamed Jimmy V. An American college basketball coach and broadcaster. Also he is considered the creator of the intentional foul. He is not only remembered for running up and down the court after winning the 1983 NCAA championship, but also for his inspirational 1993 ESPY Awards speech, given just eight weeks before he died of cancer.

And 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!

And if you see me, smile and maybe give me a hug. That's important to me too.

Be a dreamer. If you don't know how to dream, you're dead.

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.

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.

Don't give up. Don't ever give up.

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.

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.

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.

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.