By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer
Dick Vitale is inextricably intertwined with college basketball, with his iconic voice, exuberant style and enthusiastic catchphrases melding into a soundtrack for nearly five decades of the sport’s history.
And the broadcasting great’s influence is sticking around next season, too, both in person on game days and through an addition to the college basketball calendar named in his honor.
ESPN announced Monday that Vitale has signed a contract through the 2027-28 season, while ESPN Events is launching the Dick Vitale Invitational — the first matchup being a season-opening tilt between Duke and Texas on Nov. 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Fittingly, the announcement comes on the 86th birthday of the affectionately known “Dickie V,” and months after Vitale returned to the airwaves after being gone for two years amid a fourth battle with cancer. The Basketball Hall of Famer, also a former college and NBA coach, has been with ESPN since its 1979 launch and called the network’s first college basketball broadcast.
“So many times, awards and honors come to people after they’re long gone,” Vitale said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And to get it while you’re living is just a great, great feeling.”
Vitale’s career is built around his zeal for college basketball, one familiar for fans who have grown up watching games called by Vitale. That style is so authentically distinctive that it can come only from Vitale himself, down to his catchphrases like calling freshmen “Diaper Dandies” and imploring coaches to “better get a TO, baby!” at key moments.
“I think for a lot of people, he represents the voice of the sport,” said Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events. “For a lot people he embodies all that’s great about the sport. So we’re excited to do this with him and excited he agreed to participate.”
Paying tribute
Overby said discussions about a Vitale-named event had been tossed around going back years, with conversations reaching Vitale in recent months in what Vitale called “a shock.”
ESPN Events is partnering with the Charlotte Sports Foundation after they worked together previously on the Jumpman Invitational and Ally Tipoff events for men’s and women’s college basketball in Charlotte. After the Duke-Texas game, Overby said, ESPN Events will evaluate how the Invitational will evolve with scheduling, format and even the potential to involve multiple nights in multiple cities.
Overby believes it’s a worthy tribute to the man who welcomed him to college basketball as Overby watched games on TV while growing up in Wisconsin.
“I’d turn on a late-night basketball game and he would be there,” Overby said. “So for a lot of years, he was kind of my window into that world. And I’m not alone. I think he provided that voice of the sport to so many people as the sport and TV were emerging together.”
Getting back
Vitale sounds eager to get back to courtside this fall, calling it “the best medicine in the world” to join partners like Dave O’Brien and Dan Shulman.
“I feel really good,” Vitale said. “I really do.”
Vitale had surgery last summer to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his neck. He was previously treated for melanoma and lymphoma, and had radiation treatments last year for vocal cord cancer. He described feeling “trapped” afterward not being able to speak, leaving him to scribble eraser board messages to communicate.
“I tell people: ‘If you know somebody battling cancer, really take a moment, send them a text message, something encouraging, send them a prayer,” Vitale said. “Because I know what it did for me. It lifted me big time in some of my darkest moments.”
Now he calls himself “fortunate,” “blessed” and “lucky” while offering thanks to family and ESPN for supporting his recovery.
He announced he was cancer-free in December, returned Feb. 8 for Clemson’s home win against Duke, then became emotional during the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in March when telling colleagues live that it felt “like a miracle to sit here with you guys.”
Looking ahead
It’s among several ways cancer has touched Vitale, a longtime fundraiser for cancer research. He notably helped friend Jim Valvano to the stage at the 1993 ESPYs, where Valvano delivered his famous “Don’t give up” speech, then helped him off with now-retired Duke Hall of Fame men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski. Valvano died of adenocarcinoma less than two months later.
The V Foundation announced last month that the 20th annual gala in Vitale’s name had raised $12.5 million for pediatric cancer research in the past year and more than $105 million in its history — continuing work Vitale said “might be the greatest achievement of my life.”
As for broadcasting, Vitale said he’d love to reach the 50-year milestone with ESPN in 2029.
“I do it because I love it and I feel mentally sharp enough to do it,” Vitale said. “I would never do it if I was at a point in my life I couldn’t remember names, didn’t know players, teams, coaches, strategy. But I feel so strong about that.
“So many people would say to me, ‘Dick, you’ve made enough, you’ve had enough success, why don’t you just relax?’ They don’t realize: It is relaxing! Every game for me is relaxing!”