Dick Vitale will not be remembered as one of the all-time great basketball players, coaches or owners, but there’s no doubt “Dickie V” and is one of the most awesome, sensational, high-rising, P.T.P hoops personalities of all-time.
The veteran ESPN personality spoke to a crowd of over 500 as the keynote speaker for Thursday night’s fourth annual South Central Missouri Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet held at Branson’s Chateau on the Lake.
The 77-year-old Vitale is the latest in the list of star-studded guests that includes Lou Holtz, Emmitt Smith and Mary Lou Retton.
Vitale, who’s well known for his involvement in the V Foundation charity for cancer research, is also a big fan of the FCA. He told stories of how he went from being a sixth grade teacher to head coach of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. And while he was heart-broken after being fired after just two years, he found a new passion, at a then very new venture known as ESPN.
“I’d do this for nothing,” the exuberant Vitale joked to the media. “But you know what, I like the check they send me.”
While most his age are enjoying their retirement years, Vitale, who’s written nine books, continues to bring the same energy he broke onto television with in the late 1970’s, even on a plane at 6 am.
“This guy walks up and says ‘wait a minute Dicky V I don’t see no life out of you, you look like you’re half dead’”, Vitale recalled. “I said men, it’s six o’clock in the morning. What do you want me to do, yell awesome baby?”
