By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Dick Vitale is living the dream and then some, baby!
"I've lived a life that's exceeded any dream, I mean, come on, making a living doing something you love," the 80-year-old former coach and current college basketball analyst said Thursday evening.
Dickie V, as he is known in basketball arenas throughout the country, was in Salina Thursday to speak at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet.
Vitale credits his parents for guiding him on his life journey. He said his parents were factory workers with fifth-grade educations, however he noted that they each had "a doctorate of love."
"They taught my brother, sister, and I in this great country, if you have passion about what you do, and you do it to the best of your ability, a lot of beautiful things are going to happen," he said.
Vitale said he carries with him to this day what his parents taught him.
The cruelty of others and the love of his mother
Vitale explained that when he was a boy, he lost the use of his left eye and that it would wander, not looking in the same direction as his right eye.
"I thought it was the end of the world," he said.
His mother, however, bolstered his feelings, telling the young Richie, as he was known as then, that he had something that others didn't: his spirit and excitement for life.
"Don't let them hold you back," his mother told him.
Vitale recalled being a little league pitcher and hearing other children's parents ridiculing him because of his eye.
"I went home and I cried like a baby. I had to go in my room and my mother would say 'what are you crying about?' Those people, they're all ridiculing my eye. I'm 12 years old. She inspired me. She said 'don't let them get the best of you,'" he said.
Fast-forward to when his two daughters were young and his wife, Lorraine, took them to have their eyes checked.
"The doctor says, by any chance, I noticed the name is Vitale. Are you, by any chance, related to Dick Vitale? She says 'yeah, that's my husband,'" Vitale recalled.
He said the doctor told Lorraine, "I'm a big basketball fan and I watch the games on TV. Has anyone ever talked to him about his eye...about correcting that eye?"
Lorraine told the doctor that Dick's mother had taken him to a number of doctors and received all sorts of reports. The doctor told Lorraine that he was talking about correcting movement in the eye so that it worked with the good eye, Vitale said. She went home and told him what the doctor had told her, but he wasn't interested.
An incident later, however, would prompt Vitale to pay a visit to the doctor. He explained that one day, after walking out of the studio, he asked the receptionist whether there were any calls. She replied, that just one guy had called and he had made her really mad because he he'd kept calling and demanding the company president's phone number. It seems the caller wanted to get Vitale off the air because he couldn't stand looking at Vitale's eye.
"It was like a knife went through me. It brought back the memories of little league," he said.
Vitale explained that he went home, called his boss -- Steve Anderson -- and told him that he was done with television and was going back into coaching because he was being ridiculed about his eye.
"He said 'Dick, we hired you because of your enthusiasm, your knowledge,'" Vitale said.
"I was crushed, so I told my wife I wanted to quit and coach and she said, 'don't be ridiculous!'" he added.
Eventually, Vitale went to see the doctor, a pediatric opthamologist, who told him he would make an exception and work on Vitale's eye.
Vitale's enthusiasm shines through
It's easy to see Vitale's enthusiasm for what he does, but what is his favorite part?
"I love being in the arena. Go to Kansas. When I went there for Rock Chock Jayhawk last Saturday, I walked in and the kids chanting "Dickie V" going in. I mean, I'm 80 years old and they treat me like ...you know, its unreal. Same thing the other night at Carolina-Florida State. It will happen again probably Saturday. I'm doing Indiana-Purdue. I love it. I eat, sleep, and drink it," Vitale said.
"It's not work. It is absolutely stealing money! To sit at court side. The best games in the country, week in and week out. I'd do it for nothing, basically, because I love doing it. And I think that's what keeps me going," he continued. "People say, where do you get your passion and your energy? Very simply, if you're doing something that you love, and you wake up and you're excited to go, its going to really give you that impetus, and that's what it does for me. It really, really excites me. I can't wait for the next game."
Vitale's other passion
After the Indiana-Purdue game on Saturday, the next game for Vitale is a special one, he said.
"That's special because a couple of guys going to the game with me. There was a package at an event that I spoke at and the package was that I would provide a private plane, they could come on a private plane with me to Duke. Mike (Krzyzewski) got me the tickets," Vitale explained. "I got six tickets and these people all bid six figures to go for cancer research because this is probably my biggest thing, people."
Indeed, Vitale has a gala each year to raise money for the V Foundation to fight cancer. This year, the 15th annual Dick Vitale Gala is scheduled for May 8 in the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota in Florida. The 2020 gala honorees include Mark Few, Gonzaga University head basketball coach, Stephen A. Smith, ESPN commentator, and Bruce Arians, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach. Additionally, NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly and Pat Williams, author, speaker, and former Orlando Magic executive, will receive the 2020 John Saunders V Foundation Courage Award during the gala, Vitale said.
Since it began, the gala has raised $29.5 million for the V Foundation, with $4.3 million raised last year. This year's goal is $5 million.
The V Foundation now has a special pediatric fund named in honor of Vitale.
"V Foundation has now started what is called the Dick Vitale Pediatric Fund. Every dollar that I raise goes into that fund. I am certainly thrilled by that," he said.
Vitale's fundraising efforts on behalf of fighting pediatric cancer don't stop with the gala.
"All my merchandise on my website, dickvitale.com, if people go there, all my merchandise, everything. Every penny that I would make. Every penny. Goes in the pile and my goal this year is $5 million for kids battling cancer," he said.
The website includes his new book, "Dick Vitale's Mount Rushmore of College Basketball," which is billed as including "solid gold, prime time performers from my four decades at ESPN."
Vitale offers advice
Offering advice to not only young people, but all people, Vitale said, "Find something you love doing."
Again, he related how his parents inspired him to do what he loved.
Vitale talked about how his parents worked in a factory.
"My mother would soak coats with a bunch of other ladies and my father pressed the coats in a hot factory, pressing those coats," Vitale said. "You got paid by what they called piece work. The more coats he pressed, the more money he made and it was like a machine from 7 in the morning to 4:30."
Vitale said his father inspired him because, "my junior year, he took me with him and he didn't want me to go and do what he's doing and I was heading that way. Nobody in my family went to college. And my mother had nine brothers and sisters and my father had nine brothers and sisters. Eighteen uncles and aunts, all blue collar. All they cared about was their family, three meals on the table, a lot of love for each other, and that's the way we lived."
He said his job was to run and get the coats. Afterward, his father gave him some advice.
"He'd say to me, 'you don't want to do this, Richie. Go to college. You got a brain in your head. Go to college,'" Vitale said.
Although he didn't think college was for him, Vitale's parents convinced him to go. Vitale graduated from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. He also earned a master's degree in education from William Paterson College and has 32 graduate credits beyond the master's degree in administration.
"I thank God every day. You know, I start my day off. In my bedroom, is a beautiful giant-sized picture of my mom and dad and me sitting on their lap when I was about three or four years old, and every day my day starts with me saying a prayer to them, thanking them for their love. For inspiring me, never letting me believe that I couldn't be a success in anything I wanted to do. I mean these are uneducated people with a heart of gold and a doctorate of love," Vitale said.
Recent honors
In 2019, Vitale joined the ranks of Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson, Curt Gowdy, and Vin Scully, when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports during the 2019 Sports Emmy Awards. He also is the 2020 recipient of the NCAA President's Gerald R. Ford Presidential NCAA award, joining such recipients as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Robin Roberts, Grant Hill, and Condoleezza Rice. Additionally, he has been inducted into the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Despite all his accolaides, Vitale gives it all back to his parents.
"Two things I will never forget in my home. My mom would always say, and my dad, 'never, ever, believe in can't. Don't let can't be part of your life.' And the second thing I would hear maybe 15 times a day, 'be good to people, Richie, and people are going to be good to you,'" Vitale said. "I'm in 14 hall of fames now. Fourteen! I can't run. I can't jump. I can't shoot. I got a body by linguine. I'm in 14 halls of fame because people have been so good to me. People have really just been great to me and that's why I want to give back."