Vitale authored book while recovering from surgery
The college basketball world has been missing its most iconic broadcaster. He’s been missing college basketball just as much.
ESPN’s Dick Vitale hasn’t called a game this season as he continues to recover from vocal cord cancer. In July, the 84-year-old announced his diagnosis, his third battle with cancer in two years. He said he’d “fight like hell” to recover, and it was a success. He announced in December he was cancerfree.
But his treatment made Vitale unable to talk during his recovery. Even without speaking, he still is using his voice. Taking the lead from his friend Jim Valvano, Vitale authored, with former USA TODAY Sports reporter Scott Gleeson, the book “Until My Last Breath: Fighting Cancer With My Young Heroes.”
The book, released this month, recounts Vitale’s journey with cancer and the inspiration he received from his “All-Courageous Team” – a group of children who were in the same battle as him. From those children, Vitale learned how to remain hopeful and persevere through cancer. The children were also there for him. As he went through chemotherapy, they sent him encouraging videos that brought him to tears.
“The youngsters we feature in my new book with Scott Gleeson are so special to me,” Vitale told USA TODAY Sports through text as he continues to rest his voice.
In telling his and the children’s story, Vitale continues his years-long fight to raise awareness for pediatric cancer and find solutions to treat affected children. All proceeds from the book, including autographed copies signed by Vitale and available on his website, will benefit the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund at the V Foundation. Since its inception, the research fund has raised more than $68 million, Vitale said.
Vitale said his overall health “is fantastic” and this is the best he’s felt in years. The only struggle is the healing process from his vocal cord surgery more than a month ago, something he said is “mentally frustrating.”
“It will take more time before I get the strength back in my voice. The 35 radiation treatments I had for my vocal cord cancer wiped out the cancer but created some problems to my vocal cords.”
Vitale looks forward to being able to call games for ESPN in the future. If his vocal cords heal properly, the plan is to be back calling games next season.
He can’t wait to be back in arenas. “I miss so much the entire college spirit at the games as I always love being able to share time with the players, coaches, fans, media and especially my ESPN colleagues,” Vitale said.