{"id":267055,"date":"2026-04-14T08:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267055\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T08:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:54:19","slug":"legendary-espn-broadcaster-dick-vitale-announces-melanoma-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267055\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale announces melanoma diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After years of battling cancer, legendary college basketball announcer <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/story\/2023-07-13\/dick-vitale-cancer-vocal-cord-espn-basketball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dick Vitale<\/a> <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNPR\/status\/2043779719682777130\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said in a statement<\/a> that he has melanoma in his lung and liver cavity and will be starting immunotherapy soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI plan on winning this battle,\u201d the 86-year-old broadcaster said. \u201cI\u2019ve beaten melanoma. I\u2019ve beaten lymphoma. I\u2019ve beaten vocal cord cancer. I\u2019ve beaten lymph node cancer. I\u2019m four for four and I\u2019m fully confident I\u2019m going to make it five for five.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cThe best news I can share today is this: I feel fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vitale also expressed optimism in a separate post on X:<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I obviously did not get the report today that I was hoping for when my oncologist called . It has been 10 days of many exams Pet Scan &#8211; Cat scan &#8211; 2 MRI\u2019s- Biopsy &#8211; multiple bloodwork &#8211; now at least I know what I face. The Melanoma Lung &amp; liver cavity cancer  will mean I will\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dick Vitale (@DickieV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DickieV\/status\/2043799531733823615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 13, 2026<\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>Vitale, known for his catchphrase \u201cIt\u2019s Awesome, Baby!,\u201d called his first game for ESPN in 1979, soon after the network launched, and has been on the mic for more than 1,000 games since then. He was inducted into the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>After a biopsy of a lymph node in his neck showed cancer, Vitale underwent surgery in the summer of 2024. Last February, after a nearly two-year hiatus, he returned to broadcasting and said he was cancer-free. He recently wrapped up his 46th college basketball season with ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Vitale also used his announcement to raise awareness for his 21st annual fundraiser to benefit pediatric cancer research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt 86 years young I\u2019ve lived a hell of a life, and I\u2019m more motivated than ever to raise money for kids battling cancer,\u201d he said. \u201cNo child should ever have to go through what I\u2019ve experienced. I am grateful beyond words for all of the support I\u2019ve received, and I\u2019m already looking forward to this year\u2019s annual Gala on May 1. I really feel we will raise $12 million to add to the $105 million we\u2019ve already raised, all for pediatric cancer research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of battling cancer, legendary college basketball announcer Dick Vitale said in a statement that he has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[116635,13849,116634,4900,750,10450,48,52,51,47,50,49,116631,116630,23760,116632,116633,5931,665,116629,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-267055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-21st-annual-fundraiser","9":"tag-awareness","10":"tag-awesome","11":"tag-cancer","12":"tag-espn","13":"tag-first-game","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-lymph-node-cancer","21":"tag-melanoma-diagnosis","22":"tag-neck","23":"tag-pediatric-cancer-research","24":"tag-separate-post","25":"tag-summer","26":"tag-surgery","27":"tag-vitale","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}