RALEIGH - The V Foundation for Cancer Research is making a $1 million award and teaming with N.C. State University to establish the Jimmy V-N.C. State Cancer Therapeutics Training Program, it was announced Friday.

The program, designed to introduce young scientists to cancer therapeutic research, is named for the late Jim Valvano, the former NCSU basketball coach and athletic director who led the Wolfpack to the 1983 national championship. Valvano died of cancer April 28, 1993.

"N.C. State is honored to have a program such as this one to be the first gift named for Jimmy V on our campus," Chancellor James Oblinger said during a news conference. "It is quite appropriate that N.C. State honor Jim Valvano's memory and his legacy through a program that will enhance cancer education through cancer research."

The program will take high school students, undergraduates and graduate students out of the classroom and into research labs at NCSU. The program will initially fund 15 to 20 undergraduate students and three to five graduate and postdoctoral students.

Nick Valvano, Jim's brother and the CEO of the V Foundation, said that collaborating with NCSU was the right thing to do and that Jim would have approved.

"This is kind of a bittersweet day, to have something in Jim's name because he died of cancer," Nick Valvano said. "But I think he would be incredibly happy.

"When Jim was diagnosed, he did what Jim normally did -- he immersed himself into the subject to find everything he could possibly find out about it. And he found out some disturbing facts ... that young people who want to have careers in cancer research were finding it increasingly difficult to find programs for funding to start their careers."

Nick Valvano likened the research program to AAU basketball programs that help hone the games of high schoolers.

"We're going to help identify talent, the passion for cancer research, and then have an institution that can bring them together and help, hopefully, our next generation of cancer scientists," Valvano said. "This is our AAU."

John Cavanaugh, professor of molecular and structural biochemistry at NCSU, will lead the project, Oblinger said.

The award and the new relationship with NCSU is another step toward closing a wound that existed in the Valvano family after Jim Valvano was forced out as coach and AD in 1990 because of allegations of NCAA violations and academic irregularities.

NCSU's trustees in 2001 issued a "healing proclamation" noting Valvano's contributions to the university.

"Time heals a lot of wounds," Nick Valvano said. "We've always wanted to have something to do with N.C. State. This fits our mission."

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