Emotional and grateful: Cancer-free Dick Vitale, at age 85, returns to ESPN for Duke game
For nearly two years, cancer stifled Dick Vitale’s ability to share his passion for college basketball, the treatments silencing a voice that effusively celebrated the sport for decades on ESPN.
Friday, 24 hours before his return to the air — cancer free and still full of love for the game as he calls Duke’s game at Clemson — Vitale’s emotions overcame him at the thought of it all.
“Tomorrow, I pray I don’t get so emotional,” Vitale said through tears. “I can’t believe I’m sitting in front of you guys talking about basketball.”
Vitale is 85 years old and has endured five major surgeries in the past two and a half years. He last worked a game for ESPN in April 2023, when he called an international broadcast from the Final Four.
For 45 years, his voice has been synonymous with college basketball. And yet, doubts crept in if he’d ever work on TV again. When people asked him why he needed to come back at all, his answer was deep with meaning.
“I need it because it’s the greatest medicine in the world,” Vitale said. “I can’t tell you the high and excitement to sit down and meet the fans again.”
Four different types of cancer struck Vitale over the past three and a half years, beginning with melanoma and lymphoma in 2021. Declared cancer free in 2022, Vitale was diagnosed in 2023 with vocal cord cancer that doctors treated with radiation.
But that fight came with another complication.
“I went about seven or eight months without being able to say a word,” Vitale said. “I would write it for my wife. You know, when you want to write something that you want, you can’t explain it with a document. But I had strict voice rest. Absolutely you can’t say a word.”
Last summer, doctors surgically removed cancerous lymph nodes.
Throughout all his treatments, Vitale did his best to stay positive. But he admitted once breaking down and “crying like a baby” after his extended family visited during a challenging chemotherapy session because he feared he’d never see them again.
But, last Dec. 12, Vitale shared news on the X that scans showed him to be cancer-free once again.
With that, he set his sights on returning to ESPN to work college basketball games, something he’s done since Dec. 5, 1979, when the then-fledgling network first covered the sport live.
Vitale was scheduled to work Duke’s game at Wake Forest on Jan. 25, which the Blue Devils won 63-56. But a fall at his Florida home left him too injured to work that day.
Two weeks later, he’s in Clemson all set to be courtside at Littlejohn Coliseum for Duke against Clemson on Saturday night.
“Really,” Vitale said, growing emotional again, “tomorrow, even if I’m horrible or whatever, it’s my championship, man, to be out there is my championship.”
His winning battle against cancer, to return to the job he loves, impresses his colleagues, like veteran play-by-play broadcaster Dave O’Brien, who will work the Duke-Clemson game with Vitale.
“I’ve never seen anybody tougher than this,” O’Brien said. “To battle what he did when it looked like it was over about 20 or 30 times, like he would never broadcast another game again. He’s talking about how emotional it is for him. It’s going to be very tough for us at the table too, because I love the guy. I’ve worked so many games with him. He’s a prince of a human being. He’s got the biggest heart that you’re ever going to find, going to find anywhere.”
Vitale said he wanted to work a Duke game to see Blue Devils freshman Cooper Flagg play in person as a college player for the first time. He watched Flagg as a high school player in Florida and is impressed with his college play thus far. Flagg leads No. 2 Duke (20-2, 12-0 ACC) in scoring (19.5), rebounding (7.8), assists (4.1) and blocked shots (1.3).
Vitale offered three comparisons for Flagg: LeBron James, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant.
“There’s only three players that I have seen in person that to me, this kid has everything they had at the same age,” Vitale said. “Now, I make it very clear and I want people to know, I’m not saying he’s going to be them.”
As for the Blue Devils, who are riding a 16-game winning streak and look very much like a national championship contender, Vitale said for all of Flagg’s greatness, it’s Duke’s defense, which he called “extraordinary” that sets it apart.
“They’re always gonna have a chance to win when you play defense like that,” Vitale said. “There might be nights that Flagg’s not hitting or this guy, but defense is a constant. They communicate as a team.”
That Vitale is making his return to call the game as Duke faces a tough game at Clemson (18-5, 10-2 ACC) is great news for the sport, O’Brien said.
“What I know about him is that when he puts that headset on,” O’Brien said, “it’s Dickie V and that’s what we’ve missed. We’ve truly missed his voice on national television. The game has missed him, his sensitivity, his passion, his creativity is a broadcaster and there’s loads of that. I think we’re lucky he’s back.”
For information on how to support Dick Vitale’s effort, through the Jimmy V Foundation, to battle and defeat pediatric cancer, visit v.org/vitale.
This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM.