RALEIGH, N.C. — The V Foundation is holding its 30th anniversary gala on Saturday.

Its mission took off with Jim Valvano, the former N.C. State men’s basketball coach, and continues funding cancer research worldwide.

Ten years before the V Foundation was created, Valvano and the Wolfpack were crowned champions of college basketball.

“Jim Valvano was put here on Earth for a special reason,” ESPN sports anchor Jay Harris said.

The famous “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” speech by Valvano provides motivation for Harris.

“I have used those words, ‘Don’t give up, don’t ever give up,’ and it has gotten me through,” he said.

Little did the world know Valvano’s passionate, unforgettable last speech at the 1993 ESPYs would define the funding of cancer research for the next 30 years.

“I’ve sat at the desk and done so many lead-ins to so many different stories where sports meld into humanity where people tell their stories,” Harris said.

One of those stories happened as Harris grew up in Chapel Hill.

“I was all in. I was an N.C. State fan growing up in Chapel Hill. Don’t tell anybody,” Harris said.

He was a senior in high school when Valvano’s scrappy 1983 Wolfpack made a March Madness run for the ages.

“Then when they beat Houston and you see this crazy coach trying to run around and hug somebody. (It) was amazing. My association with coach Valvano goes way back,” he said.

Cancer has taken two people from him: his aunt Margaret Harris and his mother, Ola Harris.

Harris said his aunt is one of those people you visited just to get a seat at her table.

“These greens she made were some of the most amazing in my life,” Harris said.

He still misses her food.

“She had lung cancer and never smoked a day in her life. It’s been about nine years. I hate cancer,” Harris said.

This past November pancreatic cancer took his mother. Harris, 58, was easily convinced to come to the gala as a co-host. 

“I get to go back home. I get to be with all my people. I get to be in this room where there is a spirit of dedication, of love, hard work and of never giving up,” Harris said. 

Another reason for accepting the invite is Stuart Scott. Scott is widely considered by his peers and many 1990s kids as one of the greatest sports broadcast voices of his time. The anchor at ESPN died from cancer nearly 10 years ago.

“That was my guy,” Harris said. Harris, like so many, remembered Scott as an unrivaled voice in sports.

“I feel pretty blessed because I got to see the Stuart Scott that wasn’t on-camera,” Harris said.

Harris said he pays tribute to great men, like Scott and Valvano, by using their spirit in his work.

“Some days I do it better than other days but it is still fun to try and do every day,” he said.

The theme of this year’s gala is funding research on cancers resistant to certain therapies. The gala begins at 6 p.m. at N.C. State Reynolds Coliseum.