More Valvano, fireworks and fizzlers

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | 10:42 a.m.

I cannot even tell you how much I miss Jimmy Valvano, whose North Carolina State squad beat us in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Gill Coliseum in Coravllis, Ore., in 1983.

He made a speech once that stunned everyone. He said the NCAA had a new rule that you can’t recruit in August.

He said he told his wife that he’d be home the whole month of August and she said, Well, good, I want to have sex every night. Then Jimmy says, Well, put me down for two of them.

Brought the house down. I thought, This guy is really something.

He and I were the top two Nike speakers. For the next few years we saw each other at every clinic, and we always went out afterward. We became very close.

He was the most intelligent coach I’ve ever known. I don’t mean about basketball. Just about everything. He was one of the few coaches I ever knew who could talk politics or business.

And he was the best speaker around.

He used to tell me he’d read 30 pages every night. All books. All topics. He only needed four hours of sleep.

What a great friend. We’d play them in Raleigh and he’d take my wife and all of our boosters out to dinner before the game.

When they came here, Lois and I would take him and his wife Pam out to Caesars the night before we played.

He went to speak in Europe and came back talking of his back bothering him. Pam took him to see a doctor. He was asked what it was when he came out, and he said the doctor had no idea.

Jimmy didn’t follow up.

He told other coaches to do speeches, to make a lot of money. He said, Tark, you lose a game you’re ready to commit suicide. No one wants to talk to you. You’re tough to be around.

Then he says, When I lose, I stay in Atlanta, make a speech and make $7,500. It feels a lot better to go home. What a unique guy.

At the Final Four in Albuquerque, someone asked about his bed checks. He said, Yeah, we had a bed check. My assistants go by and see if all the beds are there. He was so funny.

There was a big anniversary dinner for me at the Hilton and Jimmy was the master of ceremonies. He was funnier than any comedian on the Strip.

People to this day, old-timers, talk of how he could entertain for six hours.

Someone asked about the entertainment, those fireworks, we had at our games and about Moses Scurry signing because of them.

The fireworks started early, at the Convention Center. I had nothing to do with them. I didn’t know what they were doing. It turned out great. It got bigger and bigger.

Now a lot of schools are doing it. The Chicago Bulls were the first team to do it. They copied us. We were the first.

We played the Russian national team the year they beat our Olympic team. John Thompson was coaching that Olympic team. So we played the Russian national team.

Dick Vitale did the game. It was on national TV. We had a 7-footer who was hurt, but everyone else played. When we beat them, the fans went nuts because that team had beaten our Olympic team.

We had a radio show in town, and the guy who was getting sponsors, for two spots, went to Steve Wynn. Steve asked how many spots were available, and they guy said two. Steve said, I’ll take both of them.

Because we had just beaten the Russian national team!

We were recruiting Moses and David Butler. David was coming. We scheduled Moses for a visit, and after we beat the Russians Moses called me and said, Coach, I saw the fireworks. It was the greatest show!

I’ll come!

He signed his letter of inent before he ever visited.

I remember Billy Tubbs at Oklahoma. We had all those fireworks. And when he brought out all his players for introductions, each player had a fizzler in his hand.

A lot of coaches took their team in the locker rooms after the introductions.

When I first saw it, I didn’t pay much attention to it. My wife was involved with some of those people who started that. It was a big hit right from the beginning.

We had come a long way. When I first started coaching at Long Beach, we didn’t even have a fight song. I didn’t even know the difference. The band played “On Wisconsin” or the Notre Dame fight song.

So my wife and some boosters came up with a fight song.

From that to fireworks!