Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Vitale stats: Critics aside, Dickie V. still on top in college hoops

Dick Vitale can't understand it.

He hears it. He sees it. He feels it. It has gone on for years.

But the bombastic college basketball analyst never has been able to comprehend the stir he creates.

The spastic sportscaster draws enigmatic reactions from sports fans. He is both revered and reviled. He is both the most loved and most loathed in his business.

Vitale's vociferous style is entertaining to some, grating to others. Trademark phrases like "Awesome, bay-bee!" and "Get a T-O!" and "He's a P-T-P'er!" generate grins and grimaces.

Yet for all the good and bad, Vitale never is boring. And his unique style has made him a rich and influential man.

"That's why we have blondes, that's why we have brunettes, that's why we have Cadillacs, that's why we have Lincolns," Vitale says. "Not everybody is going to like your style when you're different. I can appreciate that.

"Sometimes I look at a tape and say 'Why don't you shut up, man?' Do I talk a lot? Yeah. You don't have to go to Harvard to figure that out. But I'll tell you what: You look at where I am today as opposed to where I was 20 years ago, and it must be working, man."

His euphemisms and energy often are mimicked. So much so that when Vitale was in Las Vegas last week for a UNLV game, one of the many companies he endorses staged a sound-alike contest in the Rio hotel-casino sports book. Hundreds turned out on a Monday afternoon.

At no other time of the year is Vitale more visible than right now. Today marks the start of March, the month when Vitale maintains his highest profile, breaking down all the madness for ESPN.

But before March Madness officially begins with the opening round of the NCAA tournament, Vitale will be all over the airwaves as the network's top courtside color commentator for "Championship Week," during which ESPN and ESPN2 are combining to show 61 games in nine days.

Like it or not, Vitale's mug and hyperbole will be in high supply.

He's ubiquitous, bay-bee!

Often imitated

Dick Vitale can't understand it.

Not long ago, he was teaching sixth grade in New Jersey and coaching the basketball team at East Rutherford High. Vitale easily could go to the grocery store and not be approached by anyone.

But not today.

No matter where he goes, he hears all his words thrown back at him like a boomerang.

"I walk through the airport at 6 in the morning," Vitale says. "I got the skycaps yelling at me 'Dickie V! Get a T-O, baby! He's awesome, baby! He's a P-T-P'er!' "

Mike Messenger knows all those Vitaleisms. The 32-year-old Henderson resident practices them almost every day. That paid dividends for Messenger, a customer service representative, who won the Rio sound-alike contest. His prize is a trip to the Final Four in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he will compete against two others for the national grand prize.

"It's his excitement, I suppose," Messenger replies when asked what makes Vitale so appealing. "And he has a one-of-a-kind voice. He's a celebrity of that caliber where as soon as you hear the voice you know who he is.

"I love the guy. He's great. Dick Vitale catches your ear. All the things he says -- 'Serendipity!' and 'Going to the big dance!' -- he's not your average broadcaster. He puts oomph into it. He makes it fun because you never know what he's going to say next."

Vitale became a broadcaster after getting fired in 1979 as head coach of the Detroit Pistons, whom he coached to a 34-60 record in one-plus seasons.

Nineteen years after joining ESPN, Vitale is a one-man institution with a line of books, videos, movie appearances, sports cards and speaking engagements to go along with a bulging endorsement portfolio. A toy company once produced the Dickie Doll.

But the true indicator of Vitale's iconic status could be the time he was the subject of his own "Late Show with David Letterman" top 10 list, which he delivered himself. Among the top 10 signs Dick Vitale is nuts: No. 8, "Five seconds after my first child was born, I dumped Gatorade on my wife;" No. 5, "For a cheap rush, I take hits of stale air from old basketballs;" No. 2, "I've referred to everything as 'baby,' except an actual baby."

He's a phenom

HBO will examine the Vitale phenomenon on its next installment of "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," which will air March 22. For the segment, producers spent three days with Vitale, tracking every waking moment.

"If you woulda told me five books, videos, commercials ... I never entered it with that in mind," says Vitale, who coached the University of Detroit to the NCAA tournament in 1977. "To think today what's happened with my life, it blows my mind. It's like a fantasy life. People go to bed and dream at night about having this kind of life.

"I've been a lucky guy. I pinch myself."

Even after 20 years of broadcasting, Vitale has trouble comprehending how big his star has grown. At the ESPY Awards two weeks ago, he was floored by the number of non-sports celebrities who wanted to meet him.

"I couldn't believe it," he says. "I was like a groupie, running around and getting autographs, rapping with all the guys, and I couldn't believe they wanted mine. My wife said 'These actors want your autograph over here.'

"I was having pictures taken with Donald Trump, and I didn't even know he knew who I was."

One of the most common questions asked of the Vitale family is whether or not Dick's schtick is an act. People want to know if Dickie V. is some media creation.

"So many people, the first thing everyone wants to know is if he's the same off camera," 25-year-old daughter Sherri says. "The answer truly is 'Yes.' That's really him."

And his wife of 28 years, Lorraine, claims his lifestyle is just as energetic as his delivery.

"If I told you the things he does in one day," she says, "you would say 'I wouldn't do that in a week.' He takes advantage of living each day to the fullest.

"He's basically a very vibrant, enthusiastic person. No matter what he does, he enjoys life."

Playing defense

Dick Vitale can't understand it.

Sometimes he picks up a magazine or a newspaper and rubs his shiny pate when he reads a vicious review of his work.

He shakes hands more than a politician. He signs autographs like crazy -- for free, no less. His phone rings off the hook because people crave his opinion, his advice, his endorsement. He was the fourth highest-paid sports personality for speaking engagements last year at $20,000 a pop.

He wonders: How can a guy like that be hated?

"What I've found out," Vitale says, "the bigger you get and the more popular you get, you get guys banging a typewriter who want to take shots at people who are up on top. It doesn't mean anything to take a shot at someone who's not on top. It's always easy to rip people when you never have to see them. But the coaches, the players, the fans, they treat me like royalty."

It's that type of interaction that leads Vitale to believe his admirers far outweigh his detractors.

He has his own theory about his negative criticism. Whereas his boisterous style is abrasive at times, it is never spiteful. Therefore, he believes, there shouldn't be a reason to hate him. Change the channel maybe, but don't hate him.

"I got caught up in that love-hate thing with Howard Cosell when I first started," Vitale says. "To me that was always easy for any journalist who doesn't know me, who doesn't follow me, to say that. The hate is a situation where you're talking about a Howard Cosell -- I don't have anywhere near his vocabulary; I'm not as bright; I'm not as talented -- but he would really step on people and create problems.

"People may disagree because I have a very strong opinion and I'm unique in terms of being different. I've never classified myself as a broadcaster. That is a myth. The real broadcasters are the guys I work with like Brent Musberger, John Saunders, Brad Nessler, Mike Patrick, Bob Costas, Dick Enberg ...

"I'm a jock. I came out of the locker room, somebody handed me a microphone and said 'Tell why a team's winning and tell why a team's losing.' That's all."

Jimmy V.

Dick Vitale can't understand it.

He ponders how lucky he has been in life. Then he wonders why everyone can't experience the same joys -- and be grateful for them.

"That's what bothers me about athletes," Vitale says. "I really get annoyed when they forget where they came from. I will never forget where I came from, where I am and where I want to go."

If Vitale, who turns 60 in June, ever took anything for granted in life, he stopped doing so when his good friend and colleague, Jim Valvano, was diagnosed with cancer.

Valvano, who guided North Carolina State to an improbable NCAA title in 1983, worked with Vitale as analysts in the ABC and ESPN studios. Their friendship was obvious through their derisive on-air banter.

When Valvano passed away in 1993 at the age of 47, Vitale was crushed.

"They were equals," Lorraine says of her husband and Valvano. "To have it all taken away so early, Dick couldn't help but think it easily could have been one of us."

Vitale is the co-chairman of the V Foundation, named after Valvano and dedicated to raising money for cancer research. The V Foundation has raised $4.5 million and is funding an outpatient children's hospital at Duke University.

One of the companies Vitale endorses, Papa John's pizza, donated a dollar to the V Foundation for every pie sold in Southern Nevada on Feb. 22, the day he visited Sunrise Medical Center's cancer program.

"My new passion this year, if I have a zealot's attitude about something, it's the V Foundation," Vitale says.

"We talk about a who guy goes to the foul line and say 'What pressure to make that foul shot.' You know what's pressure? Pressure is waiting after you get a biopsy for the doctor to come back with the analysis to let you know if it's malignant or benign. That's real pressure in the world, man."

Vitale challenges anyone to visit a hospital and see the suffering up close. He insists it will alter even the most aloof of perspectives.

"You want to get a humbling lesson?" he asks. "I could not believe what I was witnessing in there at Sunrise.

"I'm telling you, it's not pretty. Take a moment and walk through a hospital, see what these people go through and if you're not touched by that, you're not a human being."

It's a steal

All things considered, Dick Vitale can't understand it.

He is rich, famous, respected, despised -- all because of something that came to him so naturally: his personality.

"I never planned to be a broadcaster," Vitale says. "I'm a jock who happens to love basketball, who has the best seat in the house, who's stealing money."

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