The moment Dick Vitale’s unmistakable voice echoed through ESPN’s airwaves again, fans knew—he was “back where he belonged“. The last time he called a game was in late April of 2023. But now, he had won, he was in his national championship of 2025, as he said. He uttered three thank yous before saying See you courtside, baby and honestly, that tells us a lot about how tough the past few years have been for him. But for him, the story goes much beyond, and it won’t end anytime soon.
It would be an understatement to say that cancer is a brutal beast. In 2024 alone, it took 611,720 lives across the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society’s latest estimates. That’s not just a number—it’s moms, dads, kids, friends, gone too soon. The disease doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve got planned; it just takes. And while survival rates have climbed—pediatric cancer’s five-year survival rate jumped from 58% in the ‘70s to 85% today, per the National Cancer Institute—it’s still the second-leading cause of death for kids, claiming 1,040 young lives in 2023.
To tackle this problem, research is the way to go. But only 4% of the National Cancer Institute’s $7.6 billion budget, about $304 million, went to pediatric cancer last year. It’s a drop in the bucket when you’re staring down a monster this big. And that’s where Dick Vitale comes in who has had an experience of his own and also understands the disparity in numbers.
Vitale has faced melanoma, lymphoma, vocal cord cancer, and lymph node cancer since 2021, enduring 65 radiation sessions, six months of chemo, and five vocal cord surgeries that left him scribbling notes for months because his voice was gone. Now that he is better and is able to speak after almost eight months, he wants to make sure that he is using his voice for much more than basketball. With his biggest fight now against cancer, he is aiming to raise $100 million for kids battling cancer through his Dick Vitale Gala. He’s close—$93 million so far—and he’s not slowing down. On Tuesday, he joined ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show to talk about his mission.
“I am trying to raise money for kids battling cancer, Pat,” Vitale said. “Especially after what I went through. I want you to know this is the first live interview I’ve done in three years. Doctors have put me on unbelievable voice rest. I’ve had five major vocal-cord surgeries, and I am just honored and thrilled to be able to talk because about a year ago, I went eight weeks not able to talk. Writing everything down.”
“This is the first live interview that I’ve done in three years..
My goal is to raise money for kids battling cancer and I’m so proud of this..
We have raised $92.8M and this year we’re gonna go over the $100M mark” ~ @DickieV #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/N1lhV97Fbu
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 25, 2025
Vitale has been through it all. “I’m 85 years old, man,” he said. “I got the energy of a 20-year-old, but I’m 85. And I’ll tell you this, Pat, no child should ever go through what I did in terms of the scans, the blood work, constant trips to the doctor’s office, doing chemo for six months, radiation for 65 treatments. No child should do that.”
Vitale’s been hosting the Dick Vitale Gala since 2005, raising cash for the V Foundation, started by his late buddy Jim Valvano. He is aiming to reach the $100 million mark at the 2025 event in May at Sarasota’s Ritz-Carlton. “I’m really proud of that,” he told Forbes in December 2024. “It’s probably as good as anything I’ve ever done in my life. I really believe in it more now than ever after three years of battling what I’ve had to battle.”
And he should be proud considering the amount of effort he has put in. In 2023, he cold-called a lottery winner and scored a donation, per the Herald-Tribune. “When the cause is kids battling cancer, it’s never difficult for Vitale to pick up the phone,” they wrote. He also managed to pull in big hitters like Mat Ishbia and the Jeff Gordon Foundation, who chipped in with $1 million and $1.5 million each.
“This year, we’re going to go over the $100 million mark,” he further told Pat. “We’re honoring people like Mike Strahan, Grant Hill, John Calipari, all these stars. We have a great event. It’s held down in Sarasota at the Ritz-Carlton. Anybody who wants information can call 941-350-0580. But the best thing you can do is donate. Go to DickVitale.com. You can donate. It goes to the V Foundation, and you might save someone you love.”
His voice broke as he talked about speaking at funerals for kids who lost their fight. “It just tears my heart out,” he said. And there’s every bit of honesty in his voice. When Payton Wright, his five-year-old neighbor, died of brain cancer in 2007, he knew that his cause could not take a backseat. “I saw what her mom and dad went through,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2019. “When the funeral ended, I went to [them] and said, ‘We’re not going to let her die in vain.’”
Notably, Vitale’s cause and his fight for it won’t ever disappear. It is already shining bright in the coming generations of cancer survivors. Enzo Grande, diagnosed with leukemia at three and a half, is now 13 and cancer-free. After meeting Vitale, Enzo started “Enzo’s Smackdown to Cancer,” collecting toys for kids in hospitals.
So, Payton’s dad, Patrick, was correct when he said- “It pisses me off when I meet people and they go, ‘All he (Vitale) loves is the ACC. I can’t stand that guy.’ You don’t even know what he does, man.” Honestly, we don’t know how he does it either.
Should it be this hard?
Can Dick Vitale hit that $100 million mark? Absolutely! He is already on a great trajectory. The Dick Vitale Gala pulled in $11.1 million in 2022, according to the V Foundation’s official announcement from that year. Fast forward to 2024, and they shattered records with $24.8 million, as reported by Forbes. That’s a massive leap. So it’s not a question of if, but when.
But here’s where it gets tough—pediatric cancer’s still criminally underfunded. And that is why Vitale gets frustrated from time to time. “If Clemson, if Alabama, if Notre Dame, if Ohio State called a meeting and said they wanted to raise millions because they wanted to elevate their football facilities, they’d get it in no time,” he told SI. “I’ve got to beg and plead.” He’s not wrong—college football programs like Alabama have operating budgets topping $100 million annually, often boosted by donor drives that dwarf cancer research efforts. So, Vitale’s out there hustling for scraps by comparison.
Yet, he doesn’t want anyone to lose faith, no matter how grim the prospects might look at times. “Cancer sucks,” he choked out while talking to ESPN. “Anybody battling cancer, please, listen—think positively, always, and have faith and believe”. And that’s also the thought we want to leave you with.
The post Having Taken 611,720 American Lives, ESPN’s Dick Vitale Vows to Fight Back Disease With a $100M Aid appeared first on EssentiallySports.
