The Coach Who Ran Out of Time

On March 4, 1993, college basketball coach Jim Valvano walked to the podium at the first-ever ESPY Awards. Cancer was consuming his body. He needed help just to stand. But for twelve unforgettable minutes, he delivered one of the most powerful speeches in sports history.

Ten years earlier, Valvano had coached North Carolina State to one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history — a championship victory over Hakeem Olajuwon and the heavily favored Houston Cougars. The image of Valvano sprinting across the court, arms outstretched, searching for someone to hug, became iconic.

Now, standing before a room that had gone completely still, he said, "Cancer can take away all of 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."

Then came the words etched into sports history: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

Valvano died less than two months later.

Hope is not the absence of suffering. It is the refusal to let suffering have the final word. The apostle Paul understood this from a prison cell: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair" (2 Corinthians 4:8). Our hope is not anchored in our circumstances. It is anchored in the God who holds our minds, our hearts, and our souls — and who promises that those three things will carry on forever.