North Carolina State University Athletics
Jimmy V Classic Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
11/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2004
BY TIM PEELER
They cleaned up all the dirty dishes, just like they promised. That was one of the things N.C. State women's basketball coach Kay Yow was worried about on that September afternoon in 1987, when Jim Valvano called to say he and his staff were coming over to fix Yow lunch.
She was afraid they would leave a big mess. And that she would laugh too much.
Movement of any sort was bamboo-in-the-fingernails painful for Yow, who was less than a week away from the radical mastectomy she had as treatment for breast cancer. Coughing was awful. Laughter was worse, because Yow has one of those deep chuckles that starts in the belly, works its way around the torso and often needs a backwards head tilt to escape from the mouth.
But it was also the best medicine, as anyone who spent significant time around Valvano knew.
""You couldn't be around Jim and not laugh - it was impossible,'' Yow said. ""They had this lunch that was just unbelievable. It killed me, my body, to laugh. But it was medicine for my soul and for my spirit. It really hurt on the outside, but it felt really good on the inside.''
Italian being Yow's favorite food, Valvano and his staff stopped at Amedo's on Western Boulevard and got exactly one of everything. They dragged it in the house in boxes and bags, and headed for the everyday china.
""Jim,'' Yow told him, ""how about we use paper plates?''
Yow tried some of everything: pizza, lasagna, noodles and sauce. The place was wrecked, of course, just as you might expect with eight guys slopping carry-out into the house.
""I just told them to put everything in the dishwasher and throw everything else away or take it with them,'' Yow said.
There may not have been any leftovers, but that meal, more than any other memory, left a lasting impact on Yow. It helped her beat cancer.
Valvano wasn't as fortunate. His cancer, metastatic adenocarcinoma, was much more aggressive, much more deadly. He died in April, 1993, only 10 months after being diagnosed. But his lasting legacy is the Jimmy V Foundation, a Cary-based charity that has raised some $40 million for cancer research and issued more than 200 research grants since it was founded shortly before Valvano's death.
The foundation has raised money through various events, such as the Jimmy V Classic basketball double-header, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on December 7 at Madison Square Garden, and the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic, a star-studded, high-end golf tournament held at Prestonwood Country Club.
Yow - a member of the Board of Directors of the V Foundation with Bill Cosby, Dick Vitale, Mike Krzyzewski and Dereck Whittenburg, among others - wanted more direct involvement with funding the research, which is why she pushed for a women's doubleheader as well.
Sunday, the Wolfpack will play NCAA runner-up Tennessee in the third-annual Women's Jimmy V Classic at 5 p.m. at the RBC Center. That game will be preceded by North Carolina playing defending national champion Connecticut.
Yow is a little concerned that attendance - and therefore revenue for cancer research - hasn't been as healthy as she would like. She might consider asking the foundation to change the date of the women's event until early or mid-December, when people aren't still focused on Thanksgiving, college football or the start of the regular season for men's and women's basketball.
For now, however, Sunday's games are a showcase for the four teams and for the charity it hopes to help. The first two women's events raised more than $100,000 for the foundation.
Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt only met Valvano once. But she and Yow go way back. Yow was one of Summitt's assistants in 1984, when they led the United States to its first Olympic gold medal.
And, Summitt says, as much as an inspiration as Valvano has been in his posthumous fight for cancer research, she believes Yow is a hero and inspiration as well, which is why the Volunteers have participated in two of the three women's Jimmy V events.
""Coach Yow, like Coach V, demonstrated great, great courage,'' Summitt said. ""She is obviously very strong in her faith. She had the courage and will to fight the disease. For her, it was all about her attitude. Kay has always just had the most positive attitude, not just on life, but on every day. I thought she held on to her faith and her attitude.
""She was an inspiration to others going through her own battle.''
