Deadline: ESPN Analyst Dick Vitale Has Vocal Cord Cancer, Vows To Be Ready For College Hoops Season

Story from Deadline:

ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said Wednesday that his battle with cancer continues, as he once again has vocal cord cancer.

The 84-year-old Vitale posted on Twitter that he will need six weeks of radiation to treat it.

“I plan to fight like hell to be ready to call games when the college hoops season tips off in the Fall,” Vitale wrote.

Vitale had a procedure in July and was on voice rest for 6-8 weeks. That’s when it was discovered that his past issues have returned.

Vitale has been with ESPN since 1979, the year the network launched. He called ESPN’s first college basketball broadcast. His trademark cry of “Awesome, baby,” has marked hundreds of hoop moments.

In 2021, Vitale was diagnosed with lymphoma, months after he had multiple surgeries to remove melanoma. Last year, he announced that he was cancer-free.

Vitale has been active in fundraising efforts against cancer, raising more than $50 million for the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the foundation of his former Rutgers colleague and longtime friend, Jim Valvano.