Normally, Pam Valvano Strasser will visit Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh on Jim Valvano’s birthday.
She has a better way to remember her late husband on Friday. She is in New York at the ACC tournament where the conference will honor Valvano, the coach of N.C. State’s 1983 national championship team, as a part of its annual “ACC Legends Class.”
“I’d rather do this,” Strasser said. “When I heard about this award from the ACC and realized the date, I couldn’t believe it.”
The charismatic coach, famous for the odds his ’83 team overcame and his inspirational fight with cancer, would have been 71 on Friday.