Coach K Saddles Up For His Old Friend Jimmy V Once Again
As he goes to Chicago to raise money for the V Foundation
Mike Krzyzewski is a guy who can keep a promise, and one of the biggest ones he’s made was to his late friend, Jim Valvano.
When Valvano was dying of cancer in 1993, he asked Coach K if he’d support the V Foundation, Valvano’s effort to beat cancer after it defeated him.
Krzyzewski agreed and he’s been doing it ever since. And it’s not a ceremonial commitment: Coach K has thrown himself into working with the V Foundation and has helped raise millions of dollars for research. It’s really become a dynamic, amazing organization and it’s getting results. Cancer research is making remarkable advances and a number of approaches are showing great results. Just do a search on cancer breakthroughs and you’ll see what we mean: a number of trials for various forms of the disease are showing incredible results. One we saw the other day had a 100 percent remission and another saw pancreatic cancer “stopped in its tracks.”
Anyway, Coach K is back in his hometown for the first Chicago Epicurean. It’s another way to raise funds and to help with the fight. If you’re near the Windy City, it sounds like a good time. You should check it out.
Coincidentally, we posted another story today about cancer research at Duke. Kids are a special situation and obviously it’s heartbreaking to see them suffer at such tender ages.
You know who else it’s hard to see suffer?
Dickie V has been through multiple bouts of cancer in the last few years and the man is now 85 and he’s fighting it again.
What we greatly admire about Vitale is his relentless energy, fight and optimism. We’ll say it again: the man is 85 and his treatment is not easy. But he gets back up every time and goes into the clinic and just fights.
Until we do finally defeat this vile enemy, we need a role model. Jim Valvano taught us to never, ever give up and Vitale is embracing that spirit anew. The man’s spirit is simply indomitable.