Background and career
Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster and former head basketball coach. He is well known for his tenure since 1979 as a college basketball broadcaster for ESPN. He is known for catchphrases such as "This is awesome, baby!" and "diaper dandy" (outstanding freshman player), as well as his enthusiastic and colorful remarks during games. He has also written fourteen books and appeared in several films.
Vitale was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in Garfield, New Jersey. He moved to East Paterson (now Elmwood Park) in his freshman year of high school. His father, John, was a piecework clothing press operator and had a second job as a security guard. His mother, Mae, worked in a factory as a seamstress and sewed coats until she suffered a stroke. Vitale graduated from East Rutherford High School in 1958. He attended Seton Hall University and graduated with a degree in business administration in 1962. He later earned a master's degree in education from William Paterson University, formerly known as Paterson State College.
Vitale took his first job as a coach at an elementary school in Garfield, New Jersey in 1958. Eventually he moved up to the high school level to become head coach at Garfield High School for one season, and then at East Rutherford High School (his alma mater), where he had a record of 131–47 from 1964 to 1971 and led his teams to two New Jersey state championships.
In 1971, Vitale moved to Rutgers University as an assistant coach under head coach Dick Lloyd. After two years, he was then named head coach at the University of Detroit (now Detroit Mercy) on March 31, 1973. He made an immediate impact in Detroit, leading his first Titans team to a 17-9 (.654) record. After two more successful seasons, Vitale took the 25-4 (.862) 1976-77 Titans to the 32-team NCAA tournament in 1977. The team featured a 21-game Titans winning streak, and the highlight of the season came on February 16, 1977, as #15 Detroit went on the road to then No. 6 and eventual national champion Marquette. Detroit would lose in the second-round of the NCAA tournament to the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball, finishing with a #12 national ranking. Following the season, his fourth as Detroit head coach, Vitale stepped down as coach and was named the university's athletic director.
Vitale left the Titans to become head coach of the Detroit Pistons on May 1, 1978, succeeding Bob Kauffman who had served as an interim following the dismissal of Herb Brown 4+1⁄2 months prior on December 15, 1977. He signed a 3‐year contract with a $100,000 annual salary and a new Cadillac. The Pistons finished with a 30–52 (.366) record in 1978–79. Vitale was hospitalized with stress related stomach issues during his first season on the bench in Detroit as the team struggled. In his second year, on November 8, 1979, Pistons owner Bill Davidson came to Vitale's house and told him that the Pistons were making a coaching change. It was twelve games into the 1979–80 Detroit Pistons season, and with the Pistons off to a 4–8 start, Vitale was fired on November 8, 1979, with assistant coach Richie Adubato promoted to replace him on an interim basis. A significant reason for Vitale's downfall with the Pistons was the maneuver that brought Bob McAdoo to Detroit. M.L. Carr's decision to sign with Boston as a free agent in 1979 spawned a transaction in which the Pistons, with Vitale in charge of player personnel, entitled to compensation for Carr, demanded McAdoo, whom the Celtics were looking to unload due to injuries. The Pistons sent two 1980 first-round draft picks (in addition to Carr) to the Celtics in exchange for McAdoo in a combination free agent signing/trade. The Pistons would have the worst season in franchise history in 1979–80, and their pick would become the first overall pick in the 1980 draft. Boston then traded the two picks to the Warriors (who selected Joe Barry Carroll with the number 1 pick and Rickey Brown with the number 13 pick) in exchange for Robert Parish and the number 3 pick (Kevin McHale).
Following his departure as coach of the Detroit Pistons, Scotty Connal gave Vitale his first TV opportunity at ESPN cable network. His first reaction to the job of broadcaster was "Absolutely no way. I know nothing about TV. I want to get back to where I belong and my spirit belongs." He was reluctant to accept the position but his wife Lorraine told him to "go on TV and have some fun", so Vitale accepted on a temporary basis until another coaching job became available. He called ESPN's first college basketball game on December 5, 1979, when DePaul defeated Wisconsin 90–77. His first play-by-play partner was Joe Boyle. Vitale was not a natural at first for broadcasting. He missed his first-ever production meeting when he was walking the streets of Chicago. Also, he would talk while the producers were talking to him through his earpiece, during commercials, and while the play-by-play man was talking. Vitale himself was not sure if broadcasting would fit him. Connal, who had hired him, told him, "You have a quality we can't teach." Vitale did not understand this until many people wanted his autograph at the 1983 Final Four. He credits a lot of his success to working with Jim Simpson at the beginning of his career. In 1985, after the American Broadcasting Company acquired ESPN, Vitale also began doing broadcasts on the ABC network. In 1999, Vitale was featured in a series of thirty-second promo shorts for "Hoops Malone". The shorts, which aired in heavy rotation on ESPN, were presented as a sitcom featuring Vitale, George Gervin and others, including a puppet called "O'Hoolix". ESPN promoted "Hoops" with banners and other marketing premiums, with the idea of generating buzz about the show, but no actual episodes were ever produced. Though this led to an offer for Vitale to do an actual sitcom, he turned down the opportunity. In December 2002, Vitale called a St. Vincent – St. Mary's–Oak Hill Academy prep game, featuring then high school phenom LeBron James. He announced the game with Dan Shulman and NBA great Bill Walton. By the 2004–05 season, Vitale was doing approximately 40 games a year. Vitale is signed with ESPN through the 2023–24 college basketball season. In February 2015, ESPN removed Vitale from covering Duke-UNC basketball. He had covered every Duke-UNC game televised by ESPN since 1979. Vitale is a voter on the AP Top 25 men's basketball polls, the annual Naismith Award and the John Wooden Award. Vitale called his first NBA game on television since the 1984 NBA playoffs, along with Dan Shulman, on January 7, 2009, when the Miami Heat played the Denver Nuggets as ESPN swapped its NBA and NCAA crews. During ESPN's first incarnation covering the NBA, he regularly covered games. In January 2022, Vitale announced that he would take the remainder of the season off to rest his voice before undergoing planned vocal surgery and would not commentate any more college basketball games that season. He returned to broadcasting in November to provide coverage for the 2022 Champions Classic game between Kentucky and Michigan State. On May 5, 2025, ESPN announced they had signed Vitale to a two-year contract extension through the 2027–28 season. On March 17, 2026, Vitale called his first NCAA Tournament game, joining TNT Sports broadcasters Brian Anderson and Charles Barkley, for a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio.
