After numerous cancer battles, legendary ESPN announcer Dick Vitale is nearly ready to return to the network and call a college basketball game once again.
Vitale, 85, announced on social media on Wednesday that his vocal cords are cancer free. He said his doctor now feels he “can return to my love of being at courtside for ESPN.”
Just had scope of my vocal cords & I was very emotional with the great report by Dr ZEITELS . He said the vocal cords are cancer free & he feels I can return to my love of being at courtside for @espn . pic.twitter.com/r4tJHcTiMF
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) January 8, 2025
This cancer battle was just the latest that Vitale has gone through in recent years. He was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2021, and then with lymphoma a few months later. He then announced in July 2023 that he had been diagnosed with vocal cord cancer, which he overcame a few months later. But then last summer, Vitale announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer a fourth time in his lymph nodes. He’s been recovering from that ever since, and he underwent surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes in July.
Vitale has largely been away from ESPN amid his fights with cancer, but he returned briefly in 2021 to an incredibly emotional moment at a game in Las Vegas.
Vitale has been at ESPN almost since the beginning and has been a staple in the sport for decades. He called the very first basketball game for the network after it launched, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Vitale told HoopsHQ’s Seth Davis that he hopes to be calling games as early as later this month, and that he’s been building up his voice to prepare. Barring any setbacks, it sounds like Vitale will be on the sidelines as soon as he possibly can. And, as he always has, Vitale is going to keep up the fight against cancer.
“I am 85 and have lived a fantastic life but youngsters should not have to deal with all the chemo, radiation scans and surgeries that I have dealt with,” Vitale said, via HoopsHQ. “I have a special goal that I hope I can see all 5 of my grandchildren graduate from college. By the time they all receive their degrees I would be 89. I plan to go beyond that.”
