Jimmy Valvano's Brother to speak to High School Basketball Athletes


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Bob Valvano, the younger brother of the late North Carolina State Coach Jimmy Valvano, will be a guest speaker during the first annual West Virginia Coaches Against Cancer Basketball Tournament, December 27 and 28 at Morgantown High School.

The tournament, which will feature boys and girls basketball teams from across the state and Pennsylvania, is a joint effort of the West Virginia Schools Athletic Coaches Association and West Virginia University's Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. The participating schools include Parkersburg South, Mount View in Welch, Morgantown High, Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg and Laurel Highlands High School in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

Bob Valvano, an ESPN TV college basketball analyst and ESPN radio talk show host, college basketball commentator for the University of Louisville, and author of the book The Gifts of Jimmy V, will visit Morgantown during the two-day roundball competition. He will give a talk at the Morgantown High School auditorium on December 28. A book signing will follow.

Valvano will share memories of his brother, Jimmy, including how he coached his underdog North Carolina State team to an NCAA tournament victory in 1983 and how he heroically, but unsuccessfully battled cancer. 

Joining Valvano in addressing the audience will be Elbert Glover, PhD, director of Addiction and Psychiatric Medicine Research in WVU's Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry. He will give a dynamic and enlightening talk about tobacco addiction and how it affects the brain. 

The presentations will begin at 11 a.m. and are open to the public free of charge, as well as to the coaches and high school athletes participating in the Coaches Against Cancer basketball tournament. For more information contact Lora Williams, Director of Annual Giving at the Cancer Center at (304) 293-0789. 

Tickets for the tournament will be sold at the door at Morgantown High School. The event is one of several year-round activities planned by the coaches and WVU's Cancer Center to raise cancer awareness and to fund educational programs about the disease across West Virginia.

 

-WVU-
sls:12/12/01