SARASOTA — Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino joked at the Dick Vitale Gala Friday that, at 56, he can’t keep up with Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan when it comes to night life.
“My limit of Bud Lights is not his limit,” the coach said, to laughter.
Seeing the special pupil-mentor relationship the two men have was one of the highlights of the 2009 Gala, which honored the pair at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota.
A fresh-faced Pitino coached Donovan, a chubby guard from Long Island, to a Final Four appearance in 1987 when the two were at Providence.
“I don’t think Billy realizes yet that he will go down in history by winning back-to-back championships at Florida,” said Pitino, referring to the 2006 and 2007 NCAA basketball titles. “He will go out and try again, but he will one day realize how hard that is in our profession.”
Pitino’s eyes filled with tears as he said that he was more proud of Donovan for winning the title in 2006 at Florida than he was getting his only title, in 1996, at Kentucky.
Donovan said he called Pitino as the Gators attempted to defend their championship in 2007 and asked him how to coach a team that had a bull’s-eye on its back everywhere it went.
“Coach told me to take the statistic sheet and just try to get every player to do a little better than they did last year,” Donovan said. “That’s what we did.”
Although the night belonged to Pitino and Donovan, the spirit of former North Carolina State coach Jimmy Valvano was in the house, many said.
It was March 4, 1993 and Valvano, his body covered with malignant tumors, spoke after being awarded the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitairian Award at the first ESPY Awards.
“When I first saw it on TV, the tears just streamed down my face,” Gala attendee Mark Goodson of Goodson Electric in Manatee County, said of Valvano’s famous “Don’t give up” speech. “Every time I see it, and I hear him say ‘Never give up,’ I start tearing up.”
Dianne Glass of Manatee County said she’s not a big sports fan, but knows the speech.
“I remember the ‘Never give up,’” Glass said.
Valvano’s exact words were: “We are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And it’s motto is ‘Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.’ That’s what I’m going to try to do every minute I have left.”
Jimmy’s brother, Nick Valvano, who now is CEO of the Jimmy V Foundation, grew up taking care of his little brother. They lived in Seaford, Long Island.
“Our father and mother, Rocky and Angelina, were first generation Italian,” Valvano said. “Whenever I went anywhere, Rocky would say, ‘Take your brother.’ Jimmy grew up hanging around with me and my older friends. It made him tough and competitive.”
Nick Valvano was living in Spokane in the fall of 1992 when he was paged as he was about to tee off on a golf course. It was Jimmy on the phone.
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