Dick Vitale is sharing an emotional message as he bids farewell to the final game he will call this season.
“It’s been a great thrill for me. I get emotional. I’m probably going to be emotional, you know, tomorrow, this weekend. It’s my last game this year, I pray and hope I can be back next year. Maybe even better,” Vitale, 85, said at the Saturday, March 15, ACC Championship game. “I hope and pray my doctor really helps me with my voice. …I have to listen to my doctor right now. He told me, voice rest right after this game for a week.”
Vitale gave a shout-out to his fans and the people who have supported him, including ESPN for “tolerating and putting up with me in terms of my issues I’ve had.”
“It’s been a miracle, really. To sit here with you guys. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me. It’s been unbelievable,” Vitale said through tears, per ESPN. “Tough three years, those four cancer battles. I don’t wish on anybody. Cancer sucks.”
“I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me. Really, it’s been unbelievable.”@DickieV gets emotional thanking the fans and the broadcast for supporting him through his cancer treatments ❤️ pic.twitter.com/F8ndycDWC8
— ESPN (@espn) March 16, 2025
He continued, “I’ll tell you this, anybody battling cancer, please listen, think positive always, and have faith and believe that if you’re out there, a person that knows somebody who has cancer, send them a text message, send them a phone call, make a phone call. The bottom line is it means so much. I know it meant a lot to me in my darkest moment when I was in the hospital doing chemo and had a bad dad day. Man, it was a tough, tough time. I had to stay overnight and my family left.”
Vitale recalled “crying like crazy” before a nurse came in and “cheered” him up. He recalled having “messages from all over the country” on his phone.
The sports announcer received treatment for melanoma and lymphoma in 2021 and couldn’t speak for four months following surgery for precancerous dysplasia and ulcerous lesions. He was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer in 2023 and stepped away from announcing.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Dick Vitale is officially back in the booth. The iconic sports announcer — best known for lending his voice to NCAA’s men’s basketball — made his triumphant return to college hoops on Saturday, February 8 during the Duke-Clemson game at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum in South Carolina. The appearance marked the first […]
In June 2024, Vitale shared that he underwent another surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his neck. Months later, Vitale shared that he was cancer-free.
“SANTA CLAUS came early as Dr Rick Brown called & said that my PET SCAN at 7 AM came back CLEAN OF CANCER ! OMG thanks so much to ALL of YOU for your [prayers],” he wrote via X in December 2024. “Yes I’m cutting the nets down baby it’s my National Championship!”
