TUPATALK: A scribble, a hug, a laugh, a tear

There are two autographs my sister cherished.

One of them were part of a latter correspondence she maintained with Richard Rodgers during the final few years of the peerless composer's life.

The other golden signature in her small collection belonged to Jim Valvano.

My mom and sister felt a special affinity toward all things Italian.

They also wrapped their hearts around sympathetic underdogs.

It was no surprise that when North Carolina State's men's basketball team made its incredible run through the 1993 NCAA Tournament that mom and Pam jumped on the bandwagon early.

That bandwagon grew into an ark skimming through an ocean of interest as the Wolfpack's tournament run grew longer.

N.C. State's appearance in the 52-team NCAA tourney bordered on the miraculous. They had finished the regular season at 17-10. Their only hope to play in the Big Dance was to win the ACC Tournament.

Fourth-year head coach Jim Valvano guided the Wolfpack to the tourney title with an upset against No. 2 Virginia in the final.

No one gave the Wolfpack -- the first team to qualify with 10 losses -- much of a chance to make any noise.

But, N.C. State stunned the world.

They reeled off wins against No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 6 UNLV, No. 10 Utah, No. 4 Virginia and No. 18 Georgia to end up in a championship showdown against unquestioned No. 1 Houston.

Houston boasted multiple future NBA superstars Akeem "The Dream" Olajuwon and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler. (Another Houston Cougar player, Dave Rose, went on to coach the BYU men's basketball team and spent a lot of time in the 2000s and early 2010s in Bartlesville scouting and recruiting Noah and Jakob Hartsock.)

North Carolina State completed its miracle win by beating Houston, 54-52, on a last second dunk. There is a idyllic video shot taken immediately after the game when he was running down the court in frenzied fashion looking for someone to hug. His normal hugging partner, Lorenzo Charles, was being mobbed by teammates after scoring the winning bucket.

At the same instant mom and Pam went crazy back in Utah, I bolted out onto the ledge of a Marine Corps barracks apartment building in Beaufort, S.C. I wasn't looking for a hug -- just a celebration.

Valvano's coaching career never approached that level again; a scandal in the Wolfpack basketball program forced him to retire in 1990, even though six subsequent investigations exonerate him and his staff of serious violations.

Following his coaching career, Valvano found a successful career as a TV sports broadcaster.

But, in 1992, when he was 45, a diagnosis of cancer sounded a death knell.

A year later he delivered a speech whose echoes still chime with stirring inspiration 30 years later.

Valvano made the speech on March 4, 1993, at the first ESPY Awards. He would be dead 55 days later.

In some ways, during that speech he was still that passionate man running all over the court looking desperately for someone to hug. In this case, he connected with millions.

He made his listeners happy while recalling the first pep talk of his head coaching career. He elevated the audience to a higher place in their souls.

In talking about what's important in life, Valvano said: "To me, it's three things: where you started, where you are, and where you're going to be."

Valvano spoke about the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research and repeated its motto: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

"And, that's what I'm going to try to do every minute I have left," he said. "I will thank God for the day and the moment I have."

Valvano also listed three things people should do every day: "Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think, you should spend some time in thought. And number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears. … If you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day."

Valvano lived a full day in half a lifetime. He left pieces of his heart strewn around like flower pedals at a wedding.

I don't know what happened to my sister's autograph. But, that's okay. It was a hug meant meant for her, it lasted a lifetime.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk Column