Bob Valvano (born January 29, 1957) is a former college basketball coach and an American sportscaster based in Louisville, Kentucky.[1]
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 29, 1957 Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Basketball | |
| 1975–1977 | Virginia Wesleyan |
| Soccer | |
| 1976–1978 | Virginia Wesleyan |
| Golf | |
| 1976–1979 | Virginia Wesleyan |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Basketball | |
| 1979–1982 | Hofstra (asst) |
| 1982–1984 | Kutztown |
| 1984–1988 | St. Francis (NY) |
| 1989–1992 | Catholic University |
| 1992–1994 | St. Mary's (MD) |
| 1994–1998 | Bellarmine |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 178–226 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| CAC regular season (1992) | |
| Awards | |
| CAC Coach of the Year (1992) | |
Television and coaching
editDuring the college-basketball season, he is the lead game analyst for ESPNRadio, and occasionally for ESPNU. When not doing those games, Valvano is the color analyst for University of Louisville men's basketball games on radio (WHAS 840 and WKRD 790.)
Valvano began his coaching career at Hofstra University where he was an assistant to head coach Dick Berg for three years.[2] Then he took over the head coaching position at Division II Kutztown.[2] Valvano coached there for two years, setting the single-season record for wins his second year, before taking the head coaching position at St. Francis College in 1984.[2] At the time of Valvano's hiring he was the youngest head coach in Division I men's basketball at 27 years old. While with the Terriers, Valvano did not have a winning season but did win the college's first postseason game in over 30 years in 1988.
In 1988, he left for Sweden to coach the Alvik Professional Basketball Club.[3] After one year in Sweden, he returned to take the head coaching position at Division III Catholic University, where his third team there had the first 20-win season in school history, (20–6), and set 6 NCAA records for 3-point shooting.
Valvano then went to St. Mary's (MD), where his team had that school's first winning season ever at the NCAA level in 1994.
In 1994, Valvano took the head coaching job at Bellarmine University, where his teams improved for four straight years, culminating in back-to-back winning seasons (16–11, 17–10) his last two seasons.
Head coaching record
edit| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Francis (NY) Terriers (ECAC Metro Conference) (1984–1988) | |||||||||
| 1984–85 | St. Francis (NY) | 7–12 | 3–11 | 8th | |||||
| 1985–86 | St. Francis (NY) | 9–19 | 4–12 | 8th | |||||
| 1986–87 | St. Francis (NY) | 11–16 | 5–11 | T-7th |
| ||||
| 1987–88 | St. Francis (NY) | 11–18 | 5–11 | 7th | |||||
| St. Francis (NY): | 38–74 | 17–45 | |||||||
| Total: | 178–226 | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
Radio
editValvano hosts a daily radio show (The V Show) on ESPN680 in Louisville from noon until 3 weekdays.
He had hosted a late night show on ESPN Radio (under the same V Show moniker) for over twelve years. During that time, SI's Richard Deitsch named Valvano his National Sportsradio Voice of the Year in 2012.
Valvano was also named Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year in 2016.
A regular segment on The V Show was the "Zero-Thousand-Dollar Pyramid," which was inspired by the Pyramid series of game shows. His show also regularly featured the "Sports Radio Match Game", based upon the 1970s edition of Match Game, complete with audio from that show.
Personal life
editValvano graduated cum laude from Virginia Wesleyan College in 1979, where he majored in communications and lettered in soccer, basketball and golf. (He was voted All-Conference First team as a goalkeeper and still holds the career record for saves at VWC.) He was inducted into the college's Sports Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 2009. He and his wife Darlene have two sons, Nicholas and Jamison.[4]
Valvano is the younger brother of the late North Carolina State college basketball coach and TV commentator Jim Valvano. He is active in the V Foundation, Jim Valvano's legacy in the fight against cancer, and authored a book about his brother titled "The Gifts of Jimmy V".[5]
References
edit- ^ Bob Valvano bio Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at MyNW.com
- ^ a b c "ANOTHER VALVANO TAKES HISTURN". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
- ^ Brady, Jim (February 21, 1990). "VALVANO SETTLES INTO HIS OWN AT CATHOLIC". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
- ^ Bob Valvano bio at JimmyV.org Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Valvano, Bob (2001). The Gifts of Jimmy V: A Coach's Legacy. Chicago, IL: Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-892049-30-8.