At 84, ESPN’s Dick Vitale is way past being a “Diaper Dandy.”
But he still hopes to be a PTPer (prime-time player, for those unfamiliar with Vitale-speak) during the upcoming college basketball season.
Vitale has completed 35 radiation treatments for vocal cord cancer with the hopes of returning to the microphone, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
The report states Vitale finished his final treatment Friday and now must rest his voice for the next six weeks.
He’ll also need to undergo a scope in two to three weeks as part of his treatment.
Vitale tweeted a medical update on Saturday: “Thanks to ALL of you for sending me a message about completing the 6 weeks of RADIATION – now must wait several weeks for report to see if the radiation wiped out the cancer in my vocal cords.”
The college basketball legend announced in July he had been diagnosed with vocal cord cancer.
That news came about one year after he was declared cancer-free after battling lymphoma.
Vitale was diagnosed with lymphoma in October 2021, two months after having surgery for melanoma.
Vitale is an ESPN original.
He joined the network in 1979, shortly after it launched, and spent the next 40 years becoming one of the most popular and well-liked college basketball analysts.
At the 2022 ESPYs, he was honored with the Jimmy V. Award for Perseverance.
The honor was named after Vitale’s good friend Jim Valvano, who died from cancer in 1993, just two months after delivering his famous speech at the ESPYs: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up … Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind. It cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”
Hopefully, a quick recovery will have Vitale courtside again soon, calling knee-knockers featuring dipsy-doo dunk-a-roos from some high risers this college hoops season.
