A new film about famous NC State basketball coach, Jim Valvano, will include stories about his life and star “Everyone Loves Ramond” Ray Romano. 

Valvano, better known as “Jimmy V” among the general public, led NC State’s men’s basketball team to a national championship in 1983. The “Cardiac Pack” beat the Houston Cougars in a 54-52 victory, one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.

Most of what fans know about Jimmy V’s life and legacy comes from sports documentaries such as Survive and Advance, an ESPN film, or Valvano’s legendary ESPY acceptance speech recorded two months before his death in 1993. However, there’s a new film in the works. According to Jamie Valvano, Jim Valvano’s daughter, the upcoming biopic will show viewers an additional side of Jimmy V.

“It’s going to be a well-rounded story of his life,” Jamie Valvano said. “We would love for there to be lots of stories and things about my dad that people don’t know.”

On May 9, Deadline announced that Ray Romano of “Everybody Loves Raymond” would produce and star in the film. Very little else has been revealed publicly about the upcoming biopic, but Romano’s involvement was a huge boost to the Valvano family and everyone else involved in production.

“Ray — probably a year or so ago, during the pandemic — reached out to us as a family and shared his reasoning behind wanting to do this project and the partnerships he had with the game1 production company,” Jamie Valvano said. “They have a really neat niche and they really have a lot to do with bringing sports stories to life.”

In fact, Romano had a picture on his phone of a side-by-side comparison between himself and Jimmy V in his late 30s, around the time the Wolfpack won the national championship.

“He said, ‘that’s what I’ve been carrying around in my phone,’” Jamie Valvano said. “We, as a family, were so moved by the heart he had for this project and how it had been growing in him for a long time.”

According to Deadline, the script will be written by screenwriter and film director Jim Strouse, and Romano will produce alongside Basil Iwanyk, Greg Economou and Mark Ciardi. The Valvano family will serve as executive producers.

“We’re not going to be part of the day-to-day making of a movie, but we certainly are going to be working with the writers very closely to make sure that the right people that knew my dad and have those stories that are so precious to us are able to share them,” Jamie Valvano said.

Andrew Schnittker, a sports writer at the Wilson Times and an NC State alum, is looking forward to seeing more of Jimmy V’s story.

“As somebody who went to NC State and grew up an NC State fan — to see a movie that’s going to feature so much about NC State and its history and maybe some stuff people don’t know … I think that’s going to be really cool,” Schnittker said.

Jamie Valvano hopes the upcoming film will open fans’ eyes to the person behind Coach Valvano.

“What it’s really all about is for each of us to learn and grow, and to be touched by another human being,” Jamie Valvano said. “And that’s really what my dad, even 30 years later, has been able to continue to do with the work of the V Foundation. I’m hoping that this movie is just an extension of that, that we’re able to reach more people that can take something away from his story and can be forever changed by that.”