He’s back, baby!
After two years away from courtside, Manaee County resident Dick Vitale received a standing ovation Saturday night in his first game back as an ESPN basketball analyst since recovering from his fourth bout with cancer.
About 30 minutes before the game in Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, South Carolina, Vitale was greeted by a roar from the crowd as he arrived on the floor from a tunnel to call the Clemson-Duke game.
Clemson’s public address announcer chimed in with his best Vitale impersonation, saying “Dickie V, you’re awesome, baby!”
The 85-year-old Vitale appeared emotional as he waived to the crowd as they stood and cheered for nearly a minute.
What a fantastic time I had - it was a blast ! @jksports @ESPNPR pic.twitter.com/26Kawi3vcj
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) February 9, 2025
The longtime basketball announcer has battled four types of cancer over the past four years, including vocal cord cancer. However, he announced in late December he’s cancer-free after his fourth bout with the disease in just over three years.
Vitale, who lives in the Lakewood Ranch development, had surgery in the summer to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his neck.
In August 2021, Vitale announced he beat melanoma after several surgeries. About two months later, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent several weeks of chemotherapy at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. In April 2022, he announced he was cancer-free.
In June 2023, Vitale required six weeks of radiation treatments after tests revealed he had vocal cord cancer. Vitale again announced he was cancer-free in December 2023, but the radiation created complications that required further surgery.
Until his latest diagnosis, Vitale had been resting his vocal cords in anticipation of returning to broadcasting during the 2024-25 basketball season.
Vitale has been with ESPN since 1979, the year the network launched, and called network's first college basketball broadcast.
He was a 2008 inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A basketball coach before his TV career began in 1979, he hosts an annual pediatric cancer fundraiser in Sarasota for the V Foundation for Cancer Research, a nonprofit founded by college basketball coach Jim Valvano.
Vitale helped Valvano to the stage at the 1993 ESPYs, where Valvano delivered his famous “Don’t give up” speech. Valvano died of adenocarcinoma less than two months later.
