Dick Vitale got emotional during a live broadcast while speaking about his multiple cancer diagnoses.
The longtime sports announcer, 85, spoke candidly about his return to work after his most recent health ordeal at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game on Saturday, March 15.
“It’s a miracle to sit here with you guys,” Vitale said, sitting between his ESPN colleagues Dave O’Brien and Cory Alexander. “I can’t tell you how much you’ve meant to me. It’s been unbelievable. A tough three years, those four cancer battles.”
He continued, emotionally, “I don’t wish it on anybody. Cancer sucks.”
Vitale then shared an inspirational message to those in a similar situation. “Anybody battling cancer, please listen: Think positive, always, and have faith and believe,” he said.
The sportscaster added that those who know someone with cancer should “send them a text message, make a phone call.”
“It means so much,” he explained. “I know it meant a lot to me in my darkest moment when I was in the hospital doing chemo and had a bad, bad day.”
Vitalie announced that he was undergoing treatment for a new cancer found in one of his lymph nodes via a statement on X in June 2024.
“My report on the Biopsy of the Lymph Node in my neck has arrived & it is cancerous,” he wrote. “With all the 🙏🙏🙏 I have received & the loving support of my family, friends & @espn colleagues I will win this battle. 🙏🙏🙏 surgery on Tues. will be a success. Thanks for All the prayers.”
Vitale later announced that he was cancer-free in December 2024.
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The health update came less than a year after Vitale announced that he was in remission after receiving radiation treatment for vocal cord cancer. He announced that diagnosis in July 2023.
Vitale was previously diagnosed with lymphoma and melanoma in October 2021. He shared that he was declared cancer-free from those illnesses in August 2022.
The sports star returned to the broadcasting booth in February after two years away. Sharing a photo of the occasion, Vitale wrote on Instagram, “It was … fantastic for me to finally do what I love, talking basketball. It was the best medicine I could have ever received. It was #awesomebaby.”
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