Jimmy V
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Wow- I have close ties to several faculty at Olathe NHS. Didn’t know this stuff. Thanks for opening my eyes.
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@globaljaybird
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@JayhawkRock78 When Olathe East opened in 1994 a few guys opted to go to the new HS & get hammered like crazy. Only about half dozen did but these 2 & another running back, Pat Phelts who played for Boston College. were among them. OE shockingly fired coach Meyers just last week. Damn shame. Jeff is a good man, have known him 20 yrs. One of his players this year had a traumatic brain injury & is just now beginning therapy.
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@globaljaybird is that the kid that was hurt during the hutch game?
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@Crimsonorblue22 No. McGinnis was hurt Sept 12 vs Olathe South. There are several stories through this link.
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@globaljaybird sounds like they expect a full recovery! Amazing.
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@globaljaybird Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it or not, but my wife supervises (actually a working supervisor) the infusion center at Tulane Cancer Center in NO. She got her BSN at Washburn and part of the program was working in different areas of nursing. Anyway it was during that time that she decided she wanted to be involved with oncology. And she was a saint helping with my mom’s at home care. Anyway I transferred to Columbia, SC, after she graduated and her first job was the cancer center at Richland Mem Hosp. I’ll never forget watching some of those little kids walking in and out of there completely bald. As a parent it really hits hard and makes you count your blessings that your kids are healthy. She worked the adult floor as she just didn’t think she could handle working with kids. She gets very close to her patients and their families, not just administering chemo, but trying to help them emotionally and spiritually. And I can tell when she comes home if she lost one.
But yeah, she does give to St Jude’s every year. Smile Train is another of her favorites.
I actually lived in Olathe back in the 50’s. My dad was stationed there with the Navy. Don’t think it had that many high schools back then. And my nephew played for Washburn Rural in Topeka.
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@brooksmd your wife is a very special lady, not many people can do what she does!
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Thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you. That’s the lowest I’ve ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting.
The 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. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don’t have one of those things going with the cue cards, so I’m going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That’s the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don’t know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too.
But, I can’t help it. Now I’m fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how’s your day, and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I’m a very emotional and passionate man. I can’t help it. That’s being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it’s the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.
I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good friend and wonderful coach. People don’t realize he’s ten times a better person than he is a coach, and we know he’s a great coach. He’s meant a lot to me in these last five or six months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we competed against each other as players. I coached against him for fifteen years, and I always have to think about what’s important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you’re going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day. When I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can’t help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave.
I was coaching at Rutgers University, that was my first job, oh that’s wonderful (reaction to applause), and I was the freshman coach. That’s when freshmen played on freshman teams, and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn’t like the very first job you had? The very first time you stood in the locker room to give a pep talk. That’s a special place, the locker room, for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi, and I read this book called “Commitment To Excellence” by Vince Lombardi. And in the book, Lombardi talked about the fist time he spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the locker room, and they were perennial losers. I’m reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking should it be a long talk, or a short talk? But he wanted it to be emotional, so it would be brief. So here’s what I did. Normally you get in the locker room, I don’t know, twenty-five minutes, a half hour before the team takes the field, you do your little x and o’s, and then you give the great Knute Rockne talk. We all do. Speech number eight-four. You pull them right out, you get ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one I ever gave and I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn’t go in, he waited. His team wondering, where is he? Where is this great coach? He’s not there. Ten minutes he’s still not there. Three minutes before they could take the field Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open, and I think you all remember what great presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at the players. He said, “All eyes on me.” I’m reading this in this book. I’m getting this picture of Lombardi before his first game and he said “Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers.” They knocked the walls down and the rest was history. I said, that’s beautiful. I’m going to do that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. That’s it. I had it. Listen, I’m twenty-one years old. The kids I’m coaching are nineteen, and I’m going to be the greatest coach in the world, the next Lombardi. I’m practicing outside of the locker room and the managers tell me you got to go in. Not yet, not yet, family, religion, Rutgers Basketball. All eyes on me. I got it, I got it. Then finally he said, three minutes, I said fine. True story. I go to knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don’t open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were looking. Help the coach out, help him out. Now I did like Lombardi, I walked back and forth, and I was going like that with my arm getting the feeling back in it. Finally I said, “Gentlemen, all eyes on me.” These kids wanted to play, they’re nineteen. “Let’s go,” I said. “Gentlemen, we’ll be successful this year if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers,” I told them. I did that. I remember that. I remember where I came from.
It’s so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it.
I talked about my family, my family’s so important. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who’s right here too. That screen is flashing up there thirty seconds like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body. I’m worried about some guy in the back going thirty seconds? You got a lot, hey va fa napoli, buddy. You got a lot.
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 your emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm,” to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.
Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe, some hope to others. Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing, and AIDS, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough, but is significant. But if I told you it’s ten times the amount that goes in for cancer research. I also told you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background. I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce tonight, that with ESPN’s support, which means what? Their money and their dollars and they’re helping me-we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And its motto is “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” That’s what I’m going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That’s important to me too. 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. I can’t thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. 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!
I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.
I thank you and God bless you all.
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I had to post the whole thing for everyone here. It is one of if not the most moving speech I’ve ever heard, and once you’ve really listened to it, when you read it you feel the power of it all over again.
I’ve used this speech in my own life many times, I think any sports fan that has ever had any health issues probably has. There are great lines in it, great messages in it and it has so much soul in it that it will move you to tears.
If you ever get to watch the 30 for 30 on ESPN about the NCST national title team and when his players talk about him, and about the last time he was at NCST it will knock your your eye sockets for another loop.
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I’m very grateful to be on this site with all of you.
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I remember on the “other” site it was taboo to talk about anything other than sports. KU sports.
I love the talk about sports on this site. There are many insightful and entertaining contributors.
I ***cherish *** the non-sports talk that takes place here.
You guys and gals are the best.
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Someone said this a while back on here, but this is my social media site. I don’t Facebook, or tweet.
I KUBucket
I will probably never meet anyone here face to face, and if our paths crossed we would never know it, well except say I was at bar and this guy went on 10 minute rants about shoes and other random things, I would have to ask if his nick name was @jaybate 1.0, or if there was someone that was over analyzing things but with a good cause I might tend to think it was @HighEliteMajor.
But this group of posters is a good group, we all agree and disagree and keep it civil and fun.
If some one is missing for awhile questions are asked, messages sent to find out whats up.
We can share our thoughts on this years team, our memories of games, places, players, each other, life, and well whats on our mind.
Thank you all for being Jayhawks
hear hear.
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@JRyman What’s facebook? And I thought birds tweet.
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@nuleafjhawk Right back attcha.
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Speaking of non-sports related topics, does anyone have any ideas or opinions on who KU’s next football coach will be ?
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No clue although I like Bowen and he wouldn’t leave KU.
It will be interesting to watch the musical chairs hitting the Power 5.
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@nuleafjhawk Geez I’m dense. I just figured out the joke in your post.
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@globaljaybird
Th Olathe School District is first rate at ll levels. Now we have Olathe West under construction.
Unfortunately Olathe North West was recently rocked by a tragedy when two student committed suicide with days of each other. No question it was tragedy for the school, the district and the community at large.
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@JRyman You know Coach K? Wow. thats cool. I’ve a lot of respect for him. Even more now.
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@nuleafjhawk There are girls posting on this site?
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@JayHawkFanToo Man, Olathe West? You’ve got to be kidding. I went to Olathe South. At that time there was only Olathe North, South and East had opened the year before I graduated.
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@nuleafjhawk said:
Speaking of non-sports related topics, does anyone have any ideas or opinions on who KU’s next football coach will be ?
It won’t be Mike Riley of Oregon State, he just got hired by Nebraska. Talk about laughable and underwhelming.
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Whenever I hear Jimmy V’s speech I get emotional. I was a fan of his ever since I got to meet him when they played the Final Four at the Kingdome in '84. During the Friday practice sessions, I sat down in a section that turned out to be where the coaches were sitting too…UNLV’s Tarkanian and DePaul’s Ray Meyer among them. Got a couple of great candid photos of V.
His speech really hits home this year. About a month ago I lost a loved one to cancer…an immensely talented dancer and choreographer. Even in her hospice bed she was still working out the steps for an upcoming performance with her friend and assistant…one that, thank God, she was able to watch on video the day before she died. As I watched her go through the final stages, I thought about Jim Valvano. “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” And she didn’t…all the way to the end.
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@nwhawkfan I’m very sorry for your loss. I need to learn to read this stuff when I’m at home, and not at work. Or keep a box of Kleenex at my desk…
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Yeap. They broke ground and it is schedule to open in 2017. It is roughly on Hwy 7 and 135th.
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@brooksmd Seems like the only thing birds do out here is eat my plums & poop on the windshields, sidewalks, & deck.
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@JayHawkFanToo In 1984 when we built our first new house on the NE side of Olathe there was only Brougham Elementary on the East side of I 35. Within 10 years there were at least 4 new schools just in that quadrant. Memorial Day weekend 1984 I caught my boys watching the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with their telescope on the Twin Drive In big screen. I had to laugh at that but not in front of them. The nut doesn’t fall far, that’s for sure.
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@globaljaybird ha I thought it was apple, you guys have your own word!
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@brooksmd Wade was in remission for a year & then one day just collapsed. First time I walked in his hospital room I had to turn around & step out-I lost it. His father was outside & we held each other & balled like babies. He had come out just weeks before & watched a PPV fight with us.
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@brooksmd Was different with Mike. We all were real strong around him. He was too. He was a horse. I’d known him since I can remember. We drank beer together in old Municipal Stadium the first year the Royals played there. We had a race car together, our parents both worked together, my mother rented a house from them after my dad passed. We went to kindergarten together, graduated HS together, & married sisters.
His cancer had spread to his spine, hip & lungs. He smirked a little when they were installing his feeding tube & said “Phil, how am going to get steak & lobster in there?” The last “dinner” we had before the tube was from Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza in Joplin. That’s how the name “Dad’s Handsome Woodrow” came about. His wife & daughter were both RN’s on the staff of Freeman West in Joplin where he was treated & passed. The experience with Jake’s friend taught me how the disease would progress, but no one anticipated it would be so swift. He had been seeing a DO who was adjusting his upper back & that Dr was the one who finally sent him to the ER. They found three vertebrae in his thoracic spine were completely destroyed & one hip badly deteriorating. The Sunday night before his last scheduled chemo his son in law, one of my sons, & I changed out a motor in a Dodge Caravan & had the replacement in & running about 5 am. the next morning. We slept about 2-3 hrs & took him for his 3rd chemo but was so ill they readmitted him. The following Sat he passed. Even though the relentless results were the same, this was not a long, enduring, drawn out deterioration. It was very aggressive & quick. In many ways it is fortunate to happen this way. You never want to let go, but was beyond our grasp before we knew it. I believe that was probably the point in my life when I actually gained a true & accurate perspective & wisdom of what lies ahead. for us all. Damn, was 50+ years old & finally growing up, albeit the difficult way.
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@globaljaybird
dang you guys!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Sorry, please accept my apologies.
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@globaljaybird no need!! Just feeln bad for you guys!!! On a good note, I plan on heading to Lawrence to see game tomorrow.
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My favorite Jimmy V line: To a ref, “Can you give me a technical for what I’m thinking?” Ref, “No Jimmy” Jimmy, “I think you suck”. The ref broke his word!! Thanks for this thread Brooks, nice to see some other topics on here on occasion, even in the midst of a basketball season.
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@globaljaybird It’s a tough disease. My mom suffered through 2-3 years battling colon cancer. Like I mentioned, my wife with her training certainly helped the family through the final months.
On another note, @JRyman mentioned watching ESPN’s 30-30 about NCSt National Championship. Got to watch it and dvr it last night. Jimmy V managed to get me to do in one hour, all three things he said you should do every day. The extra insight into his interaction with his players and his life has changed my opinion of him as a coach. But I still liked him better when he started tv commentary.
And finally to everyone who has lost family or friends to cancer my condolences and ask that we all give what we can to beat this disease. And I appreciate also that we can discuss and bare our souls on this site without any negative posts. See ya’ll on chat tonight for the game.
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@brooksmd When someone close is on your side, it makes all the difference in the world. God Bless.
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I echo your remarks, Brooks. My condolences to all affected by cancer as well.
As you make your year-end charitable donations, please consider giving to any one of the many worthy organizations fighting cancer, whether it’s the V Foundation or one in your town. Here in the Northwest, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (named after the late MLB player and manager) has done a great job, and I’ve been supporting them for many years since I watched my brother’s next door neighbor, an otherwise healthy guy, die way too early from the disease. We’ve all been touched by it either directly or indirectly, and any support you give to help beat cancer is greatly appreciated.
