Dick Vitale returned to the ESPN airwaves on Tuesday night at the first ever Dick Vitale Invitational, an event that the network launched this year in an effort to honor the longtime broadcaster who has been one of the faces of the sport for more than four decades.
Vitale, who has been battling cancer repeatedly in recent years, was naturally very choked up when he sat down next to Jay Bilas and Dave O’Brien in the ESPN broadcast booth before No. 6 Duke took on Texas in Charlotte.
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But it wasn’t just the moment that moved Vitale to tears. It was the powerful tribute narrated by longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“Out of all the love and everybody giving me out here it’s just unbelievable,” Vitale said on ESPN. “Coach K, his words bring me here to tears. Jay, you played for the man. I’ve certainly learned to admire him so much. I think he’s the greatest coach ever in college basketball.”
Vitale received a standing ovation in the Spectrum Center before the game, too.
“This tonight, you know what it means to me? My grandkids are here today. My granddaughter goes to Duke, I had two graduated,” he said. “But what it means to me is my grandkids, when they have children I’ll be long gone. The bottom line is, they’ll tell them, ‘That was my papa, man. That’s my papa.’
“I’m really touched, man, really touched.”
Vitale called the first ever college basketball game for ESPN back when it first launched, and he’s been the voice of the sport on the network ever since. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, too.
Vitale was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2021, and then with lymphoma a few months later. He announced in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with , and then last year was diagnosed with cancer a . He underwent surgery last summer to , and then revealed in .
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The 86-year-old has been largely away from ESPN amid his cancer battles, but .
A scan last month revealed that Vitale is still cancer-free, which allowed him to be on the call on Tuesday night. As long as his health permits, he’s going to continue to call games on the network this season as much as possible. And if he ever needs a break or wants to skip a game, ESPN executive Meg Aronowitz told The Athletic that there will be “no explanations needed.” Vitale’s comeback is “on his terms.”
“I will never, ever stop fighting until I have no choice, but the bottom line is, I’ll keep battling,” Vitale said. “I will do whatever I can to try and stay around, because I feel there’s a lot of things I want to do — a lot of things I want to achieve.”
