It has been nearly two years since Dick Vitale has called a college basketball game, but that will soon change for the 85-year-old broadcaster. ESPN reported on Wednesday that Vitale will call Saturday's Duke/Clemson game, marking his first broadcast since the 2023 National Championship game between UConn and San Diego State.
Vitale was set to return to broadcasting last month, but he was hospitalized after falling at his home, ESPN said.
On Jan. 8, Vitale posted a video as his physician, Dr. Stepehn Zeitels, informed him that he had no cancer in his voice box. ESPN said that Vitale has had four different types of cancer in the past three and a half years.
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Vitale said that he had five operations and 65 radiation treatments on a cancer that caused him issues with speaking.
"The cancer that we treated is completely resolved and the radiation helped with that," he told Vitale. "At this point, your vocal cord is outstanding. I haven't heard your voice like this in a while."
Zeitels said that Vitale would need to have some of his activities restricted, but added, "You're back. Your vocal cords aren't going to hold you back."
"He's awesome baby with a capital A," Vitale said about Zeitels, using one of his signature catchphrases.
Vitale called ESPN's first major college basketball game, Wisconsin at DePaul, on Dec. 5, 1979. He has remained with the network ever since. In 2008, Vitale was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
