ESPN revealed on Monday that legendary announcer Dick Vitale’s contract has been extended through the 2027-28 college basketball season. His contract extension was publicized on Vitale’s 86th birthday.
Dickie V will nearly hit his 50-year mark at the network since he began there in 1979 when he called the network’s first college basketball game. Since then, he’s called over 1,000 college basketball games.
Additionally, ESPN will be hosting a new event in Vitale’s honor: a men’s college basketball tournament named the Dick Vitale Invitational. The inaugural event will take place on Nov. 4 in Charlotte, N.C., as Duke and Texas will square off.
Vitale has taken some breaks from calling games over the past few years as he’s dealt with multiple cancer diagnoses. He was previously treated for melanoma, lymphoma and vocal cord cancer, which caused him to not speak during recovery, and then he underwent surgery last year to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his neck. As of December, he’s been cancer-free.
Vitale returned to the booth in February to call his first college basketball game in nearly two years. Fans of the sport consider Vitale synonymous with college basketball, so it makes sense that ESPN would choose to extend his contract to keep him around as long as they can.
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