The legendary broadcaster will make his NCAA tournament debut on March 17 alongside Charles Barkley when they call the Texas-N.C. State First Four play-in game
Credit: Jeff Moreland/Icon Sportswire via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Dick Vitale is ready for March Madness
- The ESPN broadcaster will call his first-ever NCAA tournament game on Tuesday, March 17
- Since 2021, Vitale has received four different cancer diagnoses
On Tuesday, March 17, Dick Vitale will call his first March Madness game in 46 years of broadcasting— and he thinks it’s pretty awesome (baby).
“Gonna be doing the First Four game, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vitale, 86, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, pegged to his partnership with Planet Fitness, in advance of the Texas-N.C. State play-in game.
Until now, the veteran ESPN voice has never called an NCAA tournament game out of loyalty to his longtime network, despite having numerous opportunities in the past.
But a chance to reunite with Charles Barkley — the two called the Kentucky-Indiana game in December — has Dickie V ready for action.
“I had a lot of fun with Charles,” Vitale says. “One of my favorite moments in my 46 years at ESPN has been when I did the game with Charles.”
Credit: Dylan Buell/Getty
A return to the sidelines has the legendary broadcaster reflecting on the past few years in which he has faced numerous health challenges.
“It certainly was a tough road for me,” he tells PEOPLE. “It was a journey that no one wants to go through. Four years, four different cancers.”
Vitale was first diagnosed with melanoma in August 2021 before he received a lymphoma diagnosis months later.
He underwent six months of chemo followed by 65 radiation treatments, he said, and went into remission — and then was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer in 2023.
“My whole life is my voice, and I got vocal cord cancer, I couldn't talk, had to write everything down on a [white] board for my wife,” he recalls. “And then I came down with lymph node cancer.”
Through it all, Vitale says every cancer patient knows that “your choices are very simple.”
“You can roll over from it, but you can just battle and battle,” he says. “And I always tell them, think positive and have faith. Think positive and have faith. And I've been so blessed with all the love I received from so many fans and prayers and they all seem to come through because, you know, they say I'm cancer-free.”
The father and grandfather is currently awaiting the results of new scans, which he calls a “nerve-wracking time.”
All the while, college basketball players are also under their own kind of stress at the moment, he says.
“Obviously those kids, it means everything, man, it means everything playing in a tournament,” he tells PEOPLE. “There's so much annual stress and emotion taking place, right? You can be the greatest team in the country and have one bad night… and it's all over.”
Credit: Planet Fitness
He adds, “The stress is unreal. And to me, that's where Planet Fitness comes in big … they're awesome, baby.”
The pitchman lauds the fitness center for its Black Card Spa, a place where members can recharge and recover with its HydroMassage beds, massage chairs and CryoLounge+ loungers.
And as Vitale prepares for his own shining moment during March Madness and the soon-to-be storylines of the tournament, he hasn’t lost perspective on his own health journey.
“When that phone rings and you get those results, it's life-changing, right?” he says. “Doctor says you got cancer again, it's back to the chemo, radiation, and it's a nightmare. If he says you're cancer-free, it's like you won the national championship — cut the nets down and celebrate it.”
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