Longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale announced Wednesday that he is once again facing a bout with cancer.
The 84-year-old former coach, who’s been calling games for the network for over four decades, wrote in a statement that he has vocal cord cancer and will undergo six weeks of radiation treatment. Surgery is not expected, and he shared that his doctor told him that his condition has an “extremely high cure rate.”
“I plan to fight like hell to be ready to call games when the college hoops season tips off in the fall. [My doctor] feels that scenario is entirely possible,” Vitale wrote. “I want to say that I have been so touched by the tweets, texts, notes and prayers, and will ask all of you to continue to send positive vibes.”
This is an update on my meeting today with Dr ZEITELS. Though I was disappointed with the pathology report, I plan on winning this battle like I did vs Melanoma & Lymphoma ! pic.twitter.com/pu61XJSm43
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) July 12, 2023
Vitale has battled vocal cord health issues in the past and has already undergone surgeries this year. Vocal cord issues caused him to miss portions of the 2021–22 college basketball season, although he was on the air this past season. Vitale underwent surgery for dysplasia on his vocal cords in ’21 and also overcame melanoma and lymphoma diagnoses that same year.
“This time last year, I was on the ESPYs stage, asking everyone to help in the cancer fight,” Vitale wrote. “This terrible disease strikes so many of our loved ones, and it’s now knocked on my door three different times. More research will continue to help in this fight.”
