Dick Vitale was courtside for the first ever Dick Vitale Invitational hosted by ESPN. And while it seems like something that should be obvious, it was incredibly meaningful for all involved given Vitale’s impact on college basketball for over 50 years and his courages battle against cancer.
And it was only fitting that the first ever Dick Vitale Invitational featured the program that the longtime ESPN analyst has been most associated with during his time at the network – the Duke Blue Devils. Duke played Texas in Charlotte and it was also fitting that the man who coached Duke for most of Vitale’s tenure at ESPN had a role to play as well in Mike Krzyzewski.
Coach K narrated a tribute video package for Dick Vitale that played at the beginning of the night.
And in response to the Coach K tribute and all the festivities in his honor, Vitale was clearly moved as he sat between Jay Bilas and Dave O’Brien in the ESPN broadcast booth with tears in his eyes.
“I just, out of all the love and everybody giving me out here it’s just unbelievable,” a clearly choked up Vitale said. “Coach K, his words bring me here to tears. Jay, you played for the man. I’ve certainly learned to admire him so much. I think he’s the greatest coach ever in college basketball.”
Dick Vitale then continued by giving thanks to his ESPN colleagues from network president Jimmy Pitaro all the way to the cameramen through the years. And he also and talked about how much the invitational game meant to him and his family.
“This tonight, you know what it means to me? My grandkids are here today. My granddaughter goes to Duke, I had two graduated. But what it means to me is my grandkids, when they have children I’ll be long gone. The bottom line is they’ll tell them that was my papa, man. That was my papa,” he added.
The legendary 86 year-old college basketball analyst is working once again this season after multiple bouts with cancer. Earlier this year he received a contract extension through the 2027-2028 college basketball season, so he shows no signs of wanting to hang up the microphone anytime soon and will hopefully be back at the game that bears his name for more years to come.
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