More than 11,000 people turned out for the 16th annual Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic, which was held at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course at the North Carolina State University Centennial Campus in Raleigh Sunday.

The event is named for Jim Valvano, a legendary North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN commentator who died of cancer in 1993. The V Foundation for Cancer Research, which he started, has raised more than $80 million dollars.

It raised another $500,000 for cancer research this weekend.

Golf legend Arnold Palmer took the first swing Sunday.

"The Jimmy V fund and cancer research are very, very important. And people that are recipients of what is happening in cancer research are also going to be very thankful and happy for what's happening today," Palmer said.

More than 150 other celebrities, including many athletes and coaches, also participated.

"In my family we had a loss to cancer this past year," said Joe Corvo of the Carolina Hurricanes. "So it kind of hits home this year more than any other time."

Actor Dennis Haysbert said, "it's not so much the playing of the event, so much as it is being here and being with the volunteers and raising some money for a great cause."

Organizers say attendance doubled this year, partly because of a change in venue.

But Bob Valvano, Jimmy V's younger brother, says support for the foundation grows each year.

"When you are first getting started you are just trying to figure out, how are we going to survive? I mean, when the emotion goes away, if his memory starts to fade, will people still care? And now you realize they do care," he said.

Valvano says he knows what Jimmy V would say if he could see the event.

"He would say, ‘very nice. Have you found a cure? No? Well then get back to work.' That's exactly what he would say. And so that's what we'll do."