Bob Valvano (born January 29, 1957) is a former college basketball coach and an American
sportscaster based in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
.
Television and coaching
During 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
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...
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.
Then he took over the head coaching position at
Division II Kutztown.
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.
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
Terrier (from Latin ''terra'', 'earth') is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. Terrier breeds vary g ...
, 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. 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
Radio
Valvano 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
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
series of game shows. His show also regularly featured the "Sports Radio Match Game", based upon the 1970s edition of
Match Game
''Match Game'' is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelis ...
, complete with audio from that show.
Personal life
Valvano graduated
cum laude from
Virginia Wesleyan College
Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU) is a private university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The university is nonsectarian but historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church. It enrolls 1,607 students annually in undergraduate and graduate ...
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.
Valvano is the younger brother of the late North Carolina State
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
and TV commentator
Jim Valvano
James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster.
Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, most notably at North Caroli ...
. He is active in the
V Foundation
James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster.
Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, most notably at North Caroli ...
, Jim Valvano's legacy in the fight against
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, and authored a book about his brother titled "The Gifts of Jimmy V".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valvano, Bob
1957 births
Living people
American men's basketball players
American people of Italian descent
American sports radio personalities
Association football goalkeepers
Basketball coaches from New York (state)
Basketball players from New York (state)
Bellarmine Knights men's basketball coaches
Catholic University Cardinals men's basketball coaches
College basketball announcers in the United States
Kutztown Golden Bears men's basketball coaches
Soccer players from New York (state)
St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball coaches
St. Mary's Seahawks men's basketball coaches
Virginia Wesleyan Marlins men's basketball players
Virginia Wesleyan Marlins men's golfers
Virginia Wesleyan Marlins men's soccer players
Association football players not categorized by nationality