The MOST remarkable story in college basketball history. All the comebacks and adversity they faced that season. So fitting they won the championship the way they did.
I was 12 years old. A diehard State fan. I watched the game on a 13” Samsung tv which I had sitting in the seat of my great grandfather’s rocking chair. For the whole game I sat there on the floor a foot away from that tv. Still today I have that tv and the rocking chair. Magic was created that post season.
I'm from The Detroit area and grew up and still am a Michigan fan. (Still seeing Juzang in my nightmares) But I've always followed The Pack and The Heels. I don't think any 30 for 30 has had more of an impact on me than survive and advance. Valvano was a GREAT coach, and an even better person. The way his players feel about him tells you what a great person he was. He cared for his players deeply off the floor as much as on. His Colleagues and even rivals had admiration for him. He was taken way way too soon.
Chad,I was born in Kazoo moved to Charlotte when i was 10 still a big Michigan tigers and Lions fan but i grew up on the tarheel and NC State!Jimmy V ,His memory will live forever!
My dad was a senior at State in ‘83 living off of Maiden Lane in his frat, and after the game all of his friends said, ‘we gotta burn something 🔥 anything! What do we have?!....THE COUCH 🛋...’. The proceeded to take their only couch in the downstairs living room, March it over to Hillsboro Street, and set it on fire. He told me he didn’t remember anything after them deciding on the coach to burn. So anything after they picked it up to be hauled off for sacrilege, was pure bliss and happiness. God bless. As a young State fan I too hope one day I’ll be on Hillsboro Street burning something in celebration of the victorious championship.
My dad was 9 years old when he almost hit the ceiling jumping so high when Lorenzo Charles made the dunk off of Derek Wittenberg’s airball. I really wish I could have the feeling of one of my teams winning a championship. Nc State or the Carolina Hurricanes who are in the NHL. Jimmy V was a great coach. I will always remember him running around giving everyone hugs when the one. He was at a loss for words then he didn’t know what to say. I always love going to eat at Amedeo’s. Always reminds me of all of states greatest achievements and especially the 1983 championship win!
This run began in the ACC tournament where NC State went through #1 Virginia and UNC and Michael Jordan. Confident in saying a run like this will likely never be duplicated again. Just amazing!
i remember watching the game with college buddies...cheap beer, cheap food and a great game. and they had to beat the Tarheels and Cavaliers & win the ACC Tourney just to make the Dance..unbelievable.
...and like Terry Gannon who has worked on network TV for years said, if Sam Perkins didn't rim that long shot out at the end of regulation or the first OT(?), his life, as well as many others, would have been altered...
I watch Survive and Advance every year before March Madness. It's my most favorite sports documentary, and I'm just a guy from Pittsburgh, PA, who took a fascination into the '83 Wolfpack.
One of the luckiest people in the world staying up late with my grandma to see this happen! Cemented in my memory and one of my all time favorite moments. Did you know that Jimmy V and Lorenzo Charles are buried next to each other? Love that!
His life is the living proof that our belief and the faith is the engine of our lives when it comes down to achieving anything significant. While many coaches won the national championship with talents and strategy, his team won the championship by his and his team's will that maximized their talent and teamwork. What a man!
I still remember the interview Jim Valvano did courtside right after the win, he said "All year we just focused on making sure we would be IN A POSITION TO WIN, and then execute when we were there!"
Fantastic memories; most exciting season of basketball ever; thanks for sharing. *like the ol' ball coach, Steve Spurrier, Coach Valvano added a lot to each game they played; so much fun!
I am a lifelong Wolfpack fan and I tell you that the experience of watching all this unfold in 1983 was truly unbelievable. From the improbable run in the ACC tourney which had to happen in order for NC State to even make it to the big dance. To the nearly impossible series of razor close wins in the NCAA tourney to get to the championship game. And finally, to upset mighty Houston which some had compared to being almost an NBA quality squad. I don't think we will ever witness a run that will top it!
I used to live in the same condo complex as the late Lorenzo Charles in Raleigh, NC. Lo used to come to my house to play spades. Lo Charles got the ally hoop from Whittenburg in the National Championship game. RIP, Lorenzo Charles.
I'm new to the NC State party. Just took my two teenage daughters to Raleigh last week for a campus tour and was thrilled with the whole experience (especially impressed with the six student ambassadors who led the excursion.) One student mentioned the statue of Coach Valvano and referenced the 1983 championship and here I am learning the history of the "Cardiac Pack" for the first time and sooooo thrilled to be sending my oldest there for college this fall 👍. What a story (and I can't imagine the excitement to have lived it in real time🏀!)
In 2018 there was a HS football team with a similar sports story. Bainbridge Bearcats started 0-5 ended up 5-5 heading into the playoffs. They beat 5 top 10 teams (on the road) and won the State Championship. I still gets chills from watching their playoff games from that season.
Everyone wanted to say it was Luck and yes you do have to have some Luck to Win anything. The thing is though when you Win 3 in The ACC TOURNAMENT and 6 more in the NCAA TOURNAMENT and you beat the likes of Virginia twice with Ralph Sampson, UNC with Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins, UNLV with Sydney Green, HOUSTON with AKKEM and Drexler, Georgia with Vern Fleming. I mean I think at some point the word Good has to come into play. Those Seniors had been through the ACC wars for four years. They had played against the Jordan's Sampson's of the world. That was a good team.
They were tied or behind with less than a minute to go in eight out of nine elimination games and won every single one of them. It was the equivalent of a hockey coach pulling the goalie with ten minutes to go game after game after game and getting away with it every time.
The Wolfpack championship run will never happen again was really incredible I thought they were done so many times they shouldn't even got passed Pepperdine divine intervention
Valvano had the best line ever Reporter: coach did you have a Bed check last night? Valvano: yes we had a bed check And you will be happy To know all the beds Were there and were Neatly made
This all came down the free throws if any one of those teams would have just made one free throw no one would have ever remembered the Wolfpack incredible they were meant to win
Beats the heck out of me I wasn't very old but I remember the NCAA tournament had to be at Divine intervention but most of the time a game comes down to how the ball bounces and the free throws but this will never happen again the what NC State did was incredible
Nothing like this will ever happen again incredible I thought they were finished many times but somehow they would pull it out they should not even beat Pepperdine
3 DC Ball Players Wittenberg, , Lowe, & Bailey We came to Play and DC basketball were some of the best basketball players in the Country Dematha High School was the Best High School in the country Football and Basketball 🏀
I got a spanking this year because I cried when Phi Slamma Jamma lost. I was 8 or 9 years old. My mother spanked me because she said a little boy should not be crying over a game. But man this was my team.
Because it happened time and time again. What Villanova did was a case of the stars aligning for one night. What NC State did would send Will Hunting into hiding over that mathematical possibility that a team could win that many one or two point games under elimination game pressure.
I wasn’t born yet, but I know that this was one of the greatest stories arguably. March is in about nine weeks from now or so. This is a great story to tell this time of year since it is college basketball season. Jim Valvano was not only arguably one of the greatest Cinderella coaches ever but off the court he was an even better human being. He was taken way too early by cancer. The thing about getting there through the ACC tournament with teams today is it’s very hard, including for the current coach Kevin Keatts, the chances nowadays in this day in age of a tier 3 team of winning the national championship through conference tournaments this way are very remote in today’s World. It would be one of the greatest stories of the 21st-century if it happened again especially in today’s World. If it happened, it would be like in the other big sport for college “TCU” that we just saw earlier this month but for basketball, and not for football in the way the format for third-fiddle teams (like Holfsta, Appalachian State, Wake Forest, and even “NC State,” for that matter) have a hard path to get there it just doesn’t happen in today’s World. It’s because March Madness now has 68 teams this was a totally different era under Valvano.
Beat anything I ever seen I remember that came down to lousy free throws lucky bounces they should have been eliminated many times somehow some way they would pull it out I thought they were beating many times I was sure Houston would beat them but they didn't it was like God wanted them to win
As i unc fan i know everyone in NC has there team but ive allways loved state and unc but duke and vriginia I could care less i have allways looked at duke as the uper class kids and vriginia is just one of the most boring teams to see they dont run u to death there just a deff mind team Like last year when they beat tech to win the ncaa i hated to see unc loses to auburn but i still say auburn should have won that game. I hope nc state or something happens and unc Can win it eather one as long as on e of them do it srate has a really good team this year
Watched that game in disbelief...Houston was loaded with future NBA players which 2 of them were future NBA all stars...everyone at our party said State didn't have a chance...What a great day.Jim.y Valvano was so under rated as a coach...Beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia in the ACC tournament and regular season which was hard to do that year...GREAT TEAM...N.C. STATE 1983...
