"It's my last game this year" Dick Vitale calls final game of the season, fights back tears, and somehow makes cancer look beatable

Dick Vitale is 85. He’s been on TV longer than most of us have been alive. He’s fought four different types of cancer in four years. And on Saturday night, during Duke’s ACC tournament championship win, he called his last game of the season.
And he cried. Because how could he not?
This was a victory lap, a full-circle moment for a man whose voice was almost taken from him. His famous rasp—rougher now, a little more strained—was still unmistakably his. It was there when he thanked ESPN executives Jimmy Pitaro, David Seisler, and Mike McQuade. It was there when he looked at co-broadcasters Dave O’Brien and Cory Alexander and got choked up trying to put it all into words.
"It's my last game this year and I'm praying, hoping I can be back next year, maybe even be better, hope and pray my doctor helps me with my voice," Vitale said on air.
He wasn’t just saying goodbye to the broadcast. He was saying goodbye to a fight most people wouldn't come back from.
Four cancers. Four years. No broadcaster should have to battle for their voice like this.
Vitale’s fight started in 2021 with a melanoma diagnosis. Then came lymphoma. He returned to ESPN that fall, but his time back was short—cancer hit his vocal cords next. By 2023, it had spread to his lymph nodes. His voice, the thing that made him a household name in college basketball, was under attack.
He went through chemotherapy. Radiation. Surgery. More setbacks. More waiting. And finally, in January 2024, he got the news—he was cancer-free.
Vitale returned to the ESPN booth on February 8, calling a Duke game. That was his first broadcast since the 2023 national championship between the University of Connecticut and San Diego State University. And while his energy remained the same, his voice was weaker—rough from the toll of treatment but still unmistakably his.
Vitale didn’t just thank ESPN executives like Jimmy Pitaro, David Seisler, and Mike McQuade. He didn’t just praise his co-broadcasters, Dave O’Brien and Cory Alexander. He made sure to speak to the people going through what he did.
"I'll tell you this, anybody battling cancer, please listen. Think positive, always, and have faith and believe, and if you're out there, a person who knows somebody with cancer, send them a text message. Make a phone call. The bottom line, it means so much," Vitale said during the broadcast.
Then, he shared one of his hardest nights.
"I know it meant a lot to me in my darkest moment when I was in the hospital doing chemo. Had a bad, bad day and man, it was a tough, tough time. I had to stay overnight. My family left and I broke up crying like crazy," Vitale recalled. "That nurse came in and she cheered me up, and then I went to my phone and on my phone were messages from all over the country. Rick Barnes, Tom Izzo, [John] Calipari, coaches."
Basketball never left him. And he never left it.
Vitale has spent decades in the sport, calling games since ESPN’s first-ever college basketball broadcast in 1979. He was there when Jim Valvano made his famous "Don't give up" speech at the ESPYs. He’s raised millions for cancer research. His name is woven into the very foundation of the game.
His future? A big question mark. His doctor ordered a week of complete voice rest after the game, and Vitale is hoping for one more run next season.
"I'm praying, hoping I can be back next year," Vitale said. "Maybe even better—hope and pray my doctor really helps me with my voice."
For now, though, this season is over. And if that was his last call, what a way to go out.
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