College basketball and Dick Vitale go hand-in-hand. Like peanut butter and jelly. Peas and carrots. Ted Lasso and his mustac — OK, OK, I’ll stop.
As we all gear up for another exciting year of March Madness, we sat down with Vitale to talk about his cancer recovery journey, getting back to the game and his new endeavor with non-alcoholic Coors-icles. (Yes, that’s a real sentence.)
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
FTW: After what you've been through over the past year, how great is it to get back to basketball?
Dick Vitale: It’s the greatest benefit of all. I had a tough, tough year battling melanoma and battling my situation with lymphoma after that [and] losing my voice for for a long period of time with two major vocal cord surgeries.
But that’s all behind me. At that time, doing chemotherapy, I felt like [I was 103 years old], and that’s usually not me. I’m usually young at heart, having a blast in the stands with the kids and having a great, great time. And now I feel like [I’m] 23.
My heart goes out to every cancer patient out there because it’s no fun, man. It’s no fun. The chemo to radiation and all that, it just wears you down and beats you up. In my case it worked out, and I always tell people that was my national championship, ringing that bell. So when the doctors told me I was cancer-free, man, I was just on cloud nine.
FTW: Who is in your Final Four?
DV: Here’s my Final Four. It’s so unpredictable, I’m gonna be honest with you.
Coming out of the South, I think Alabama’s just too talented. Alabama is so athletic and so talented. [They] have the best player in the country, and that’s Brandon Miller. The other region that I think is so tough — the toughest region of all — is the East. You get so many outstanding teams, starting with Purdue. I like Duke as a five-seed. I think Duke is playing great, won nine straight and playing their best basketball. In the Midwest, I really like Texas. They’re playing great basketball and I like Texas. Then on the bottom in the West. I like Gonzaga. Gonzaga is playing their best basketball.
FTW: How did you get connected with Coors-icles?
DV: I thought it was a fantastic idea, because number one, it’s non-alcoholic, and I love the approach to that. And it’s just become very popular. They really wanted me because I really love the moment. I love the excitement of the crowd, I love the energy that basketball provides, and I happen to be that kind of guy.
They wanted to capitalize on that in their commercial when they approached me about it: “We want to do something about ‘chill’. You gotta ‘chill’ a little bit.” That was the whole approach to using me as their so-called Ambassador of Chill.
…When you talk about battling for the right to play for a championship, I call it March Mayhem, Hoops Hysteria. That’s why you gotta chill, man. You’ve got to have a Coors-icle, you’re gonna need to chill. They’re awesome with a capital A, baby!
