If the Shoe Fits
I guess this one would qualify for a Brushes with the Rich and Famous. Most bigtime college coaches have radio call in shows and Jim Valvano, the National Championship basketball coach at NC State, was no exception.
And to say that I knew him would be accurate. We’re we close, was I in his inner circle, no I was a writer in the Chancellor’s office and news bureau so from that perspective when it came to athletics, I was sort of on the outside looking in.
Now, V had a call-in show on WPTF radio and the man was very knowledgeable, and to say the least entertaining. I was a regular listener but, knowing my place, never called in. Until the night he got into a memory about the 1957 World Series and told the story of, he said, Johnny Logan, the Braves shortstop being hit on the foot by a pitch which the umpire denied, saying that the ball had not hit him and therefore he was not entitled to first base.
Logan, said V, showed the umpire bootblack on the ball to prove that he was hit and was on his way to first base.This time I picked up the phone, called the show and not sharing my NC State connection said, “Coach, that was one of my favorite moments in the ’57 series and we agree about the black on the ball proving that it hand hit the batter but it wasn’t Johnny Logan the ball hit, it was a utility player named Nippy Jones.
Now, V was never wrong and he came back at me saying that it was in fact Logan and so I politely thanked him and got off the air.
Later, having written a book called V&Me “Everybody’s Favorite Jim Valvano Story” I had a great number of people ask me what Jim Valvano was really like. And I knew!
Because several weeks later following the call in show disagreement a note arrived in campus mail, it seemed that a professor who was a big baseball fan had heard our “discussion” and sent V a newspaper account of the game stating clearly that it was in fact Nippy Jones, not Johnny Logan who was hit by the pitch and proved his way to first on the evidence of the bootblack.
With this documentation was a brief to-the-point note on Jim Valvano’s stationary that simply said,
Bob---Nobody Likes A Smart Ass
V
This now framed document hangs on my office wall reminding me to laugh daily and exactly what V was really like.