Dick Vitale, iconic basketball broadcaster, diagnosed with cancer for fifth time
Dick Vitale, 86, said he's 4-for-4 in beating cancer, and that he plans to make it 5-for-5 after getting the news Monday.
Dick Vitale is preparing for another battle with cancer. Vitale, the legendary sports broadcaster and a former head coach at the then-University of Detroit and the Detroit Pistons, announced Monday he has been diagnosed with cancer for a fifth time. He said he's "four-for-four" in beating cancer, and he's ready to make it "five-for-five.
" "The best news I can share today is this," Vitale said in a statement from ESPN. "I feel fantastic. " Vitale, 86, was diagnosed Monday with melanoma in a lung and the liver, and he said he plans to undergo treatment immediately.
Previously, Vitale was diagnosed and beat melanoma, lymphoma, vocal cord cancer and lymph node cancer. Vitale, long one of ESPN's top college basketball game analysts, has worked a lighter schedule in recent years, as he's battled several cancer diagnoses. He first was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 , and battled several diagnoses through late 2024.
After an extended leave of more than a year-and-a-half, he returned to the air in February 2025 to broadcast a Duke-Clemson game . This March, he worked an NCAA Tournament First Four game, alongside Charles Barkley, with ESPN loaning the broadcast legend to Turner Sports for the night. Vitale joined a fledgling ESPN in 1979, following four seasons as head coach of Detroit (leading the school to the Sweet 16 in 1978), and one-plus seasons as head coach of the Pistons.