Dick Vitale: Legendary Voice of College Basketball

Graham interviews Basketball Hall of Fame broadcaster, Dick Vitale. The legendary ESPN basketball analyst is colorful and heartfelt as he shares stories of his eyesight and bullying battles as a kid, a tight bond with Jim Valvano and overcoming a career-threatening injury.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This week on the In Depth podcast, Dick Vital the
legendary broadcasters on the mend after going through
successful treatment for lymphoma and surgery to his
vocal cords. But his iconic voice was in full
force when we chatted in 2015. Oh wow, you can dream, can't
you? The dream, man.
That's what the country's about.The coach turned television

(00:22):
broadcaster reflects on his early days on camera.
You know, Graham, I don't know nothing about TV.
What do you mean you don't know anything about?
TV. In the raw emotion of a health
scare that threatened to end hisHall of Fame career leading up
to games, you would have tears literally rolling down your
face. Only a couple people knew about
it, really. He shared the personal setbacks

(00:44):
throughout his life from constant bullying as a child.
I couldn't control him with something toy out out of my
control. To the loss of a close friend.
He start crying on the phone, hesaid.
I have cancer Dick and it's bad.And how that inspired the work
he's most passionate about today.
Kids, beautiful kids are future not enough being research done

(01:06):
to help them live. All that and more right here on
the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast.
So I mentioned we'd start with your early broadcasting days.
I guess the first question wouldsimply be explain the role that
ESPN has played in your life over the years.

(01:28):
Well, ESPN without ESPN, there'sno Hall of Fame, there's no the
financial success I've had, there's no commercials, there's
no books, there's no Dickie VI Mean.
ESPN has been vital in my life. It's like my second family.
I always talk about, you know, the love I have for my family,
obviously my wife, my daughters,my mom and dad up in heaven.

(01:51):
But ESPN is my second family. They've been beautiful to me.
I mean, all that, I sit back andI'll tell you, Graham, it's
unbelievable when I think about it, how ESPN, my first gig that
they did for them come in, they got a trailer, a trailer.
You get your assignments from a trailer up in Bristol, CT.
I go back there now. It's like a gorgeous college

(02:14):
campus. I mean, buildings here,
cafeterias. I sit there and I pinch myself.
The one thing I'm going to be proud of when they lay me down.
The rest I did. The very first game in the
history of ESPN College Basketball of a national level
Wisconsin, the pool. Back in 79 when I was as
depressed as I've ever been in my life, even more so than

(02:38):
losing my eye as a kid, I was sodown getting fired by the
Pistons that I would sit home and I would drive my wife
bananas. Of course, I didn't do a thing
other than, you ready for this? I was watching Luke and Laura on
General Hospital. That's how bad it was.
You're pretty obsessed with the soap operas for a while there,

(02:59):
weren't you? Yeah, you got obsessed with me.
I was looking to kill time and you know, you'll find out a lot
about people. Also, when you got fired, the
phone doesn't ring called My wife was always great and that
she always said to me, you know,you think you got a lot of
friends, you got a lot of associates, a lot of people that
are associates. But at tough times, you find out

(03:19):
who your friends are. You find out really almost many
of us could count on our hand what we call intimate friends
and then obviously your family. But I thought it was the end of
the world. I mean, my career was exploded.
I'm in a 6th grade, teaching in 1970, coaching in high school.
7-8 years later I'm sitting at courtside coaching against Jerry

(03:41):
West in the NBA, coaching against Jack Ramsey.
I mean, think about that. I was all my life.
A buddy of mine came up with a statement.
His name was Stacy Siragano, a boy, a ball, a dream.
And I utilized that a lot in my speeches to kids.
And that's what I was, a boy, myball and my dreams.

(04:01):
And I realized early that weren't going to be a player.
They'd have the quickness, didn't have the kind of
explosiveness, but I transferredit into the world of basketball.
You mentioned the first game youbroadcast for ESPN.
It's funny, I was talking to your daughter Terry, yesterday,
and I guess it was a running joke in the family for a while
that they never actually could see you broadcast games on TV

(04:24):
because of the early days of ESPN were in so few households.
But it was, I believe, Wisconsinand DePaul and Chicago.
And you said after that first game you were just hooked.
What was it about that? I don't know.
It was just an incredible feeling.
There's a big story to that. My daughter's right, by the way.
In fact, he's the teaser. My wife is a mom.

(04:44):
I don't think dad has. He's telling you all these
things. You want to do games.
We never see him on TV. He must have a girlfriend.
And I would say to them, no, I have no girlfriend.
I'm too ugly. I'm lucky that your mother was
the only one that fell for me. But really what it what it
involved when I did that game, it was just unbelievable.
It's a shot in the arm walking in talk about Ray Meyer, famous

(05:07):
coach. Well, they were number one in a
country to pull on the time, Mark McGuire, all their players
and it was great. But I will never forget the
chaos I caused because I have noidea.
You know, Graham, I don't know nothing about TV.
Many of us that. What do you mean you don't know
anything about TV? Seriously, you guys are pros out
of you studying journalism. I mean, what are we?

(05:27):
We're Jock. Somebody gives you a microphone
to go talk about a game. And then you got the critics.
Now, I'm lucky those days we didn't have the critics like you
have now. I would have been knocked out in
the first round. But you see, the bottom line was
I had no idea about production meetings, anything that nature.
So I'm walking around the city of Chicago.
I have not been in Chicago too often to enjoy it, so I'm

(05:48):
walking around finally I look atmy clock it's about 6:30.
I'm going to go to the game I goto the game I'm walking produces
people going wow where you been?We've been looking for you all
day, so you're late the game's at 8:00 when it's 730.
What's why am I late? I said I'm going to talk about a
game and it started This is truestory produces screaming at me
in my ear because I'm talking like you said, Hey, we're going

(06:11):
to go to commercial. I'm going oh, OK, Dick, we're on
TVI don't want to hear that nonsense.
And my when you look at my opening, Richard Deich and those
people posted my opening. I don't know was after so many
years, I worked they showed my opening and I watched that and
it was hysterical because the announcer said to me, Joe Boyle,
I've never worked with him sincehe his son's outstanding

(06:35):
announcer with the Pacers, but he was more a hockey guy.
So the first question basically,what about the the Paula
Wisconsin? And I went on like an
unbelievable monologue was unreal.
Like 3 minutes or two minutes orwhatever it was.
And the Bulls got this one over.And today they teach us, you
know, 20 seconds, man, boom, bam, go to the next.

(06:56):
You learn. And I've learned 37 years of
experience. After a few decades of doing it,
you've said you still get anxiety before a game.
What happens? You know, you know, Graham, I,
I, I feel this way even with speaking and I've spoken black
tie events, corporate events, stand there and major games.

(07:16):
I get goosebumps and I get excited about when that light
comes on, I'm ready to rock'n'roll and do my thing.
But I feel that anxiety, that excitement.
And I think I've told people this all the time.
The day that this happens to me,your producer Laura says to me
earlier about my being young andhard here or something of

(07:37):
nature. And, and I really feel that way
and I feel that the day that I wake up and I don't have the
excitement, the adrenaline rush.I mean, I got excited today.
My boss and ESPN called me up with a couple of games I'm going
to do. And I'm already thinking, wow,
that's going to be great, man. Doing that game, walking in that
arena. I mean, I get such a high when I

(07:59):
walk in and I start chatting. Dickie V Dickie V.
It's like a little kid and I, I,I, I think when you lose that
feeling and that what I call thewinner's edge, the edge to meet
the competition, to be prepared.I, I treat every game.
I, I learned so much. Two guys played a vital role in
my early career, Jim Simpson andBob Lee, Jim Simpson Hall of

(08:24):
Famer. You guys would go through a
routine. Yeah, he helped me through.
He helped me through the early days.
Jim was a pro's pro. He's one of the first superstars
ESPN ever hired from NBC. Scotty Connell and Chet Simmons.
What Jim Simpson to NBC and after my first game, when I did
my first game, the phone rang Scotty Connell who hired me.

(08:46):
In fact, when he called me to hire me, this is a true story
too. And he called up and he said,
you know Dick, I show you a let go by the Pistons and he said I
love you to do our very first game.
I'm with a new network, it's called ESPN.
And I said to him, ESPN sounds like a disease, man.
What is ESPN? And he said won't do that.

(09:08):
And I said no. And it was my wife.
My wife Lorraine was annoyed with me that I didn't want to go
out and do the game. But I felt I had no TV
experience. I felt I belonged in college.
I thought my passion, enthusiasmreally should go back to
coaching in college. I didn't belong in the NBAI
could not handle losing. Losing tore my insides to

(09:29):
shreds. I tell people all the time and I
stayed in coaching. I think I've been dead by 50.
ESPN has expanded my life. But anyway, I got blessed that
he called me back about a week later, 10 days, whatever it was,
and he said, Dick, do the game and you got nothing to lose.
So I do that game. After the game, I'm like you
said earlier, I'm excited, I'm high.

(09:51):
I come home, I get a phone call from him and he says, hey, man,
you got three things we can't teach.
You're candid, you're enthusiastic and you know your
game, but you have no clue, no idea how to get in out, how to
handle the telecast. He said what I want to do, I
want to assign you to work with Jim Simpson, a pro's pro who's

(10:13):
going to be with us. And he did.
And Jim took me under his wing, taught me a lunch hour how to
get in and out. Bob Lee was a genius.
I'm so happy for his success. But I'm not shocked, just like
I'm not shocked about Robin Roberts.
First time I worked with her, I came home, told my wife, I said
put this down in a book. She will be a flat out

(10:34):
superstar, another star, a superstar just has that way.
Certain people have it, Graham, you have it when you don't.
And then Scotty told me I was thinking to go back in college
and I didn't know what he meant coaching.
I was going to go back. And he kept saying to me, don't
even think about looking at coaching.
He said, Dick, you got a gift. And I didn't know what he meant.

(10:55):
He said you got a gift, that youconnect.
Whether they agree with you or disagree.
People are going to the water coolers.
Did you hear what Dick White House said yesterday?
You already said about that team?
He said no. And I didn't realize that until
1983. I go to my first assignment for
ESPN to the Final Four, and people are coming from Houston.

(11:16):
Autographs order. What is this?
And he told me, he said that's what I'm telling you.
You connect. What were some of the
fundamental lessons that you learned early on that helped you
as you progressed as a broadcaster?
Well, you know, I think basically one lesson you learn
is going to listen. You got to listen to your
partner. You know, it's a two way St.
It's not one guy, it's not one man doing his thing.

(11:38):
It's two people. So learning how to listen,
number one, I pride myself in that.
I mean, I'm listening when people say something, whether it
be a producer, director, I'm observing what they're saying
and I'm listening and I may carry it.
The second thing is learning theart of getting in and out.
Learning that art takes a while.A lot of guys, I feel very bad

(11:58):
for them. You know, they start out and
today they get critiqued so early and have no experience.
I mean, there were a lot of guyswho I thought would be good in
television. Guys you recommend.
And when the red light comes on,that's a different animal.
It's a different kind of guy. And I, I learned to relax when
the red light comes on. I learned that you're going to
make some mistakes. But fundamentally, I think

(12:20):
number one listening is title #2the art of getting in and out.
How did you learn how to do that?
I learned that through constant coaching from Jim Simpson.
We would go to lunch and he would throw names at me.
Players, we rehearse names. He'd say, this kid, I'll go a
quick 10 second sound bite on a kid.
And I mean, he was great to me. Not good, but great to me.

(12:42):
I owe so much to Jim and Bob. Bob Lee used to have a you'd get
a kick out of here. He was young now, he was about
your age. So he started This is not Oh my
God, maybe even younger. He was just out of college when
he started ESPN. When I did well, he would give
me the rap sign. It was unbelievable.
He'd ask me a question. We'd have a show.
It was called College basketballReport Show, and Bob was the

(13:05):
host and Bob would go Dick, whatabout the and he's going to give
me a rap sign before I just started that I still have a
show. But he was teaching me really
how to get in and out and not, you know, go on and on, which
I'm doing here with you. What do you bring for a game
when you know you're sitting there?
Courtside material? What?

(13:28):
What do you have with you? I have basically number one, I
do research before a game. I wouldn't call it long term
research and short term research.
Long term research is looking atthe teams before the season,
projecting who you think is going to be good, studying and
analyzing who they got coming back, recruits that are coming
aboard. And then you short term, you 0

(13:50):
in the week, you're going to do a game, talk to the coaches,
talk to the assistant coaches inparticular.
They'll give you a lot of information and you talk to them
and you do your short term, how they're playing.
What did they do the last three games?
Are they playing well? Who's hot, who's not hot?
And you make little mental notesand you have some notes in front
of you that you go to. I go to those notes as security

(14:11):
blankets in between timeouts. You know, when we're going to
commercial, I'll jot down and look at a note or two about a
team. But basically it's constant
preparation, reading, read a lotof newspapers today's day and
age with the computer. I mean, you could go up there,
you get all the information you want.
I mean, knowledge is not the problem getting not.

(14:32):
It's sharing the knowledge, getting you art of communicating
your concepts, your thoughts, what you're trying to get out of
that telecast. That's vital.
And I've been blessed. I'm going to tell you great
producers, I see some of them today who have become giants.
One talked about me just recently in a podcast.
I was told he was interviewed byRichard Nights on his podcast.

(14:53):
He's now a star with Sunday Night Football.
Freddie Goodelli. Sure.
Freddie does all the Sunday Night Football and he talked
about the early days. He said when he worked with me,
he said, Oh my God, He said whenthey told me I work with Dick
Vitalis, I said this can't be this guy sharing TV.
He said everything, he told Richard.
You see, that's the man, he said.

(15:14):
I love him and I. We're we're good friends.
How does the time investment that you put into preparation
now compared to when you were first starting out?
I think right now it's not as much for me because there's so
much available. I think the one thing I've been
guilty of, and I know producers have to remind me of it, I
probably have too much I want toshare, especially early, like

(15:36):
when I do my first couple games.You want to get out of all your
thoughts on who the best diaper dandy is going to be.
The freshman who that make an impact you want to get out right
away who you think preseason allAmericans are going to be
potential player of the year. And I want to give too much.
So I, I, I think there's such a world of knowledge available to
if I showed you my mail that I get from respective schools and

(15:58):
what you get off the computer, what ESPN sends us.
I mean, you could sit there. It's staggering.
It's staggering really compared to what we have.
And we got to realize too. And I, I don't know about you,
you're a sports fan obviously for what you're doing.
I'm a big sports fan. A lot of people think I'm just
24/7 basketball, but I am an absolute.
That's why I like Twitter, Facebooks.

(16:20):
I love, I love Periscope. I did a Periscope today.
I mentioned your show. We're going to.
We're going to be taping. You'll be driving with Lorraine
in Periscoping. I understand she drives like
offering like, you know, Ray's commentary while you're, you
know, making parking suggestionsto Lorraine, right?
But you're right about that. But I but I love it because it

(16:40):
allows me to show people that I'm not just one-dimensional.
I love all sports. I love I'm a sports fanatic and,
and there's so much out there inthe world of sports that that
takes place and I love sharing that.
I love being part of it. Starting in the mid 2000s I
believe leading up to games you would have tears literally

(17:01):
rolling down your face out of concern over how you sounded.
Explain what was going on there.Well, I went through a tough
time. I went through a tough period.
Only a couple people knew about it really, that I was going
through a major throat problem. I mean, major.
It was, it was, you know, rambling Campbell point where I

(17:22):
came very close, very close. I thought maybe it was over.
The party was over. Facing out because I couldn't
get words out. I couldn't get them out.
Like I wanted to get them out. It was a struggle.
It was a struggle. I mean a struggle.
I'm going to tell you something.I literally, I literally used to
sit in my room at times or on a plane going to do a game and

(17:44):
tears rolling down because I hadfear.
Fear about what I'm going to say.
I'm doing games instead of me thinking about the 2-3 zone and
matchups, I'm thinking about howI'm sounding and I pour water
down. I went to about 7 different
doctors. They all told me basically it's
that I've beating up my throat all these years that a lot of

(18:05):
guys like me, coaches, we talk from here as opposed to pros to
talk from here and singers from here.
And finally what happened? One day I came home, my
son-in-law was a surgeon. Chris came home and he said to
me, I met a doctor today here who's a new throat guy in town.
I want you to see him. I don't want to.

(18:26):
I'm tired of seeing guys, man. I saw seven guys so well tell me
I have to just live with this. No, no, I made an appointment.
So I went to see him. He looked at me and he said,
Dick, I don't know what it is, but there's something I don't
like that I see when I go down looking into your throat, he
said. But I can't get into there
because I don't have the equipment to do such.
And there's only one guy. He said he's the best of the

(18:50):
best. He is the Michael Jordan, he
said, the Larry Bird. He is Creme de la Creme, Doctor
Steven Zeitels. And I'm going to get you an
appointment with him. Not easy, but I'm going to get
you an appointment with him. Well, he did.
I did a game in New York. We did the Jimmy V Classic and
we then went over my wife and I,friends of mine, Mary Connealy

(19:11):
and her husband Joe. We went over to Boston that
early. He said, I'll see you 7 in the
morning. I walked in and I started
trying. He gave me a hell of an
education. Might be talk to me in a way
that no one's ever talked to me.He's I started telling him I saw
seven guys. He stopped me.
So I don't want to hear about the seven guys.
He said, number one, you're herebecause you got a problem, OK?

(19:34):
And #2 I'm the guy running the show here.
I'm in charge and you're going to listen to me.
Patients don't tell me what to do.
And I was like blown away and all of a sudden he start going
down my throat and I'm cheering up because he's shoving this I
don't know what you call some onthe scope going down doing the
scope. He's got a monitor TV call my
wife over and he said your husband's got a problem, got a

(19:57):
problem. He says, see these right here,
these I guess black marks, whatever they were.
He said he's got lesions all over his throat.
He said, and it could be cancerous.
He said we will not know until we do surgery.
And we went. We did the surgery.
I was wavering about doing the surgery.
I was just going to say the heckwith it and just go out my life

(20:18):
and see how many, how long I canlive without it.
Why? Because I just, I don't know.
I was confused. The doctors are telling me other
doctors don't do surgery. At your age, you don't need that
surgery. You can go and just be hoarse,
hoarse all the time when you're speaking and really tough
getting words out. Now, if I weren't probably in
television, I probably went out and done the surgery.

(20:38):
But we did the surgery today. He and I have become such great
friends. He is absolutely a superstar
beyond superstars. He came to the induction
ceremony when I got in the Hall of Fame with his family.
And it was right after that. I was prior to that I had the
surgery and I in my speech, if you listen to my speech, I refer

(20:59):
to him as in a crowd, as a man. That really has meant a lot to
me because he certainly helped me at a time when I, I was so
down, man. I was, you know, here it is the
thing that's giving me what you're looking at today.
The kind of home I have, the places I go, the people I've
met, the fame, all the things that have happened to me.

(21:21):
Now it's going to take me down my throat.
And it just tore me up. And I just got a lucky break.
Went in there. It was precancer.
It was called dysplasia. It wasn't cancer.
Funny story with that too is as a kid I lost my eye on my
mother. They gave me Saint Jude to
carry. And I'm not here preaching

(21:41):
religion, but the Catholic religion.
Saint Jude is like a miracle worker.
When things are tough, you go toSaint Jude.
So there I am going for surgery and they tell me you can't bring
nothing in surgery. So I said to the nurse taking
medicine, you're wrong. Saint Jude is coming to surgery.
Saint Jude is always with me, has been with me for 50 some

(22:04):
years. Saint Jude is coming.
So he said, well, you can pin iton the inside of your thing.
So he pinned it. So now surgery ends and I had a
a game I was going to play with my buddy was there, John
Saunders and my agent Sandy Montag, They were all there.
And I said to John, do me a favor.
I'm going to be in a daze when Icome out of surgery.
Just go like this. If it's not cancer, I'm not

(22:30):
scared. I said if it's not cancer, if
it's not, if it's cancer, then just because he said I'll be
able to tell what I do to surgery and you have to still
send it out. But he's I by experience, I'll
be able to tell. So now I come in this and
Johnson will like this. That's it.
And Doctor Zeitels comes over tome, puts his arm around me and

(22:50):
he says, I don't know who he's Jewish.
I don't know who you got in yourpocket.
He said, what you better take everywhere you go.
So we we became great friends through the V Foundation.
We've given a lot of money now to for the throat.
Doctor Zeitels has operated on giants.
In fact, when Adele won her Grammy, she said to the crowd,

(23:12):
she said, I owe this all to Doctor Steven Zeitels.
You go in his office, it's like a who's little man, James
Taylor, Steven Tyler. You'd be shocked by the people,
Cher and all these Lionel Richie, all these people that
have had some throat problems. I got a chance to meet James
Taylor. They bring me backstage to meet
him. I have no idea here.

(23:33):
So he says you got a concert on a Wednesday, concert Thursday.
So I don't. I said, jeez, James, I said do
you ever have any problem with your throat?
I mean, how do you do that? Do a sing every night, 2 hours.
He said I did have a problem. I said really?
He said yeah. He said I had some surgery.
I said, you know what I did too?I said I had it from a guy up a

(23:55):
boy. He started laughing.
He said Steven Zeitels. I said you're right.
He said he didn't mind now. He never.
Well, I called Steve up right away.
We're coming home from the concert.
I said, I didn't know you operated on James Taylor.
So I never tell you, Dick, because he never publicized it.
He said it's private, you know, and unless they publicize it and
they'll put it all over nationalTV.

(24:17):
And so Steven Tyler. But that was a tough time.
But you know what I've learned in life, a lot of people got a
lot tougher than I've ever had losing my eye.
My parents used to say, I don't feel sorry for yourself.
Some people got it worse. You can be somebody, Richie, one
eye, you can be somebody. You can do what you want to do.
And and I'm so lucky that I had a mom and dad that inspired me

(24:40):
so much. The I asked this because the
ladies that were putting on yourdaughter's wedding even told me
they had to stick you in confessional before the wedding
just to keep you from talking topeople.
So after the surgery you couldn't speak for 3 1/2 weeks?
What's that like? I'd go to the broken egg where I
go or at first watch. Now I'm going both places and

(25:02):
I'd have hardware and my wife remember in there, but in a
draw, we used to have these things I used to write on, write
notes on. People would come over and I
say, I can't, you know, can't speak, how are you?
All that stuff. And it was tough.
And the toughest for me was I'llnever forget this.
It's about four and a half. It was a little more than 3 1/2

(25:24):
weeks. It was longer than that.
It might have been five weeks, I'm not sure.
But it was a long period of time.
So now it was time for me to go back to see him and he said to
me when I walked in the office, he says speak to me and I
couldn't he'll he'll tell you this if you ever interview.
I couldn't get words out like that.
He says speak to me. I was afraid, fearful what's

(25:45):
going to come out because you read all reports of the surgery.
Sometimes you don't sound like you didn't know.
And I was afraid of what was coming out.
And fortunately he had me count to 10123 of them.
Then do the alphabet ABC like a little kid, man.
You're, you're in the late 60s at the timers, whatever I was.
And I'm there trying to learn the art of how to speak.

(26:07):
And since then I have followed his rules.
He has a bunch of rules. He does it with his singers as
well #1 and I don't do double headers anymore.
I don't do two games in one night.
OK, don't do that. Number two, I try to avoid 99%
of the time. I don't do back-to-back games.
I don't do that number 3 days ofgames.

(26:28):
I try to be as low key. ESPN What happened to me if I
went to do a game and I went to a shoot around right, I go to a
shoot around all the local TV and I never say no to anyone.
Graham I really, I, I, I, I try to be a person to never forget
where I came from. Somebody try starting out with
their career. They're looking to get ahead.

(26:49):
You know, it might be a big thrill for them to interview
somebody that's been on TV. And I don't want to hurt
anybody. I don't want to say no.
So I'd be talked out by the timethe game would start.
So what they do now at ESPN, they get A room and I go out a
few minutes with the kids, sign autographs, take pictures, and I
go in a room and relax my throatbefore a game.
He came to a game and he did a test on me.

(27:13):
He and his people, they did a test on when I used my throat.
They did the same on Steven Tyler on a on a concert.
And he said, you know, you got to really understand this is
your living and if you want to, he's a Dick.
I can get you a lot more years. And this has been oh man, I did
the operation. My mind tells me like 2007 about

(27:34):
2007. So here it is 8 years later.
I've been 8 incredible years right and some good money.
So I owe him a lot of money man.And you want to get more to my
agent gets. Didn't you go to a vocal coach?
Oh, yeah, I get one. I go on regularly.
In fact, he's supposed to be here today, OK?
And because you're here, you've taken a spot.
He's going to be here next week.And he goes through some routine

(27:56):
I got to do. It's it's, it's unbelievable.
What are the exercises? Well, you know, this look crazy,
crazy exercises like Oh my God, just this different sounds, you
know, different things that I have to do that am I.
Putting you on the spot Put. Me on the spot.
It's basically, you know, every day, every week it changes.

(28:18):
He brings in all kinds of new sayings.
I got them underneath my what doyou call them over there?
Gosh, I I'm drawing a blank herefor it, but basically he brings
in new sayings for me with certain words that are tough.
You have to get out. And how does that help?
It helps a lot. It helps you to utilize and he
works on me doing stuff of my age to do a lot from here.

(28:41):
OK, you know, he has you do a little singing like row, you
know, row, row, the boat, all that jazz.
Really. My country tizzy.
And try and do it from. Yeah, try and do it from here as
opposed to speaking from here. John Ferrara's name.
And he's absolutely terrific. He does a, you know, he does a

(29:03):
great, great job. I just, I, I almost embarrassed
to say some of the stuff I do isit's really, it's comical.
My wife laughs at her. She hears me doing that stuff,
you know, and it. But I'm sure successful singers
do the same sort of training. I'm sure they do.
I'm sure they do these routines before they go out to warm up

(29:23):
your vocal cords, you know? What your wife said to you the
first time she heard you doing it.
She's laughing hysterically. Want to know if that stuff helps
it all. And I really believe it does
help. I really do, because I find
myself, you know, forcing myselfto speak from here as opposed
from here. But it's it's interesting.
Some of the stuff that I do you,you'll be hysterical.

(29:46):
If you want to see somebody get right under my my desk there.
They get them right there. I'll do a few for you.
Unless they took them away. But they were underneath that
right there. They should have been underneath
there. Oh, they're not.
They hit it. Yeah, right.
There's some of the some of the sayings and some of the reading
lesson. The skunk sat on a stump and

(30:10):
thunk. The stump stunk, but the stump
thunk, the skunk stunk. If I find Florida florists fried
fresh flat flounder fish filet, oh man.
And then you try and speak that from the.
If a noisy noise annoys an onion, an annoying noisy noise

(30:33):
annoys an onion more. And I mean, these are the kind
of stuff he brings you. That's why you ask the it's.
Mix a box of mixed biscuits witha boxed mist.
This is a tough one. Mix a box of mixed biscuits with
a boxed biscuit mixer. The instinct of an extinct

(30:54):
insect stinks. I mean, these are, it's comical,
but if we do these regularly, we've been doing them for 7-8
years now and it works, you know, it's just unbelievable.
You're blind in your left eye. Explain what happened.
You know, I'm told so many things.
When I was a youngster, supposedly I pointed a pencil in

(31:16):
my arm prior to when I'm four orfive and my eye lost the vision
in the eye damage I guess to thecornea or whatever.
And I just, I, I don't know whatit is to have two eyes, to be
honest with you. I don't know what it is.
So I don't miss it. I don't, I feel I could do
anything anybody else does except I was told young don't
play football and I was playing.This is unbelievable.

(31:40):
I was playing 8th grade football.
My parents did not know I was playing.
I was playing 8th grade footballand I was the quarterback.
I was pretty good. I'm taking that T roll out.
I was. I was pretty good.
You, you were a good athlete. I mean, you almost pitched a
perfect game too. I was a decent athlete.
I was in, I was in my own dreams.
I thought I was better. You're right about the perfect

(32:02):
game, though, and that's anotherstory.
But anyway, I'm I'm playing and a guy writes in a column a
famous writer for us. He was famous local.
He was a local columnist and covered a high school scene in
our area. Name was Augie Leo, and he wrote
in his column something to the effect, I don't know word for
word, obviously. Hey, Garfield better forget

(32:24):
about Garfield was always famouswhen I went to school for
running the single wing, not thechief formation back in those
days. Garfield better forget about the
the single wing. They got a young phenom in the
eighth grade. Man, you'd see this kid Richie,
my town row. When I came home, my uncles who
were sports fanatics came in andtold my mother if I was playing

(32:46):
football, they went ballistic because that was the one sport
the doctor said with my eye not to take a chance.
So I did stay away and I pitcheda little and you know what, I'm
pitching. You mention that pitching.
I just gave a little lecture to my grandsons recently.
They were playing a Little League baseball and I went to
watch them and they had a good team.
They won the regional, they won the district, came close, a

(33:09):
couple of games away from maybe going to stay to the Southeast
regional, go on the women's sport.
They had a real good team. But the one thing that disturbed
me watching the kids play was all the curveballs I was seeing.
I couldn't believe it. And my son or I told you
earlier, is a hand shoulder elbow surgeon.
So I called him on the phone. I said, Chris, am I wrong?

(33:31):
These kids shouldn't be throwingcurveballs 11 and 12.
He said no, but some people willtell them that if you throw it
the right way, it's not going toput any strain on.
And he said that's definitely wrong.
So we make sure our kids don't. Now I Remember Me as a kid.
You mentioned there was one gamein particular I made the All
Stars. I got the article in my desk

(33:51):
there to show my grandkids was they didn't believe me.
I struck out 15 out of the 18 batters, 6 innings, 3 outs, an
inning at the last batter. I got a perfect game and the
kids a ground ball down the 1st and they gave him a hit.
My uncle's wet nuts in the stands because they put a Shim
in an error and at least a no hitter because I struck the next

(34:11):
guy out. But they took away the perfect
game that no litter the whole bit.
But when I got the next year I was like 12 1/2 going to go to
play 13 year old baseball. A guy taught me how to throw a
curveball. And once you get the feeling as
a kid of throwing that ball and seeing a curve, you start to do
what? And I'll always tell you, well,

(34:32):
it's OK if you throw a couple ofthem, but you don't throw a
couple of them because you start.
By the time I got in high school, when they thought I was
going to be a decent pitcher on a high school team, I couldn't
throw the ball through a glass plain window.
My elbow was absolutely painted all the time in those days.
There was no such thing as TommyJohn's surgery and all you, but

(34:53):
I probably would have been a candidate for that.
My baseball was over. What do you remember from the
infection you got in your eye? That was probably worse than
that. I do remember.
I don't remember the poker in the eye as a little baby or a
kid 2-3 years old, But I do remember the infection.
It was the start of my junior year.

(35:14):
I couldn't go out in the sun if I went out of the sun.
I was like this all the time. I mean, it was pus coming out of
my eye. It messed.
My mother was going from one doctor to another, and we're
getting different advice. A lot of them were saying we
should take the eye out. Take the eye out 'cause he can't
see it in any way. Take it out and the doctor don't

(35:35):
take it out. You never know.
Latest techniques. We'll try this medicine.
And finally, my family physician, Doctor Joseph Latona,
who delivered us, and he was a great guy.
Doctor Latona told my mother, I'm going to try to get him an
appointment. He said there's a genius in the
eyes in New York at the New YorkEye in New York Hospital.
I believe that's what it was called.

(35:56):
His name is Doctor Bernard Samuels.
And I'm going to try to get an appointment with him.
And I went to him and I was like1516 at the time.
I went into office and said to me, I'll never forget it, son,
don't let anybody because he wasold.
He was probably at the time in his late 60s.
Don't let anyone tell you that the lie should come out because

(36:18):
I'm going to do a procedure on you and you're not going to have
any more problem with the sun, with the pus.
I'm going to take care of that. I can't take care of your vision
that's been damaged. Well, he did that.
And it was like, Oh my God, I can walk in the sun.
I can walk outside. And and I want to share this
because I finally shared it in my book.

(36:38):
You know, we hear so much today about bullying.
We hear so much today. We're kids embarrass people,
humiliate people. Adults do it.
I think back of my days in the Little League, my eye used to go
on the side. I could never look you straight
in the eye. If I were doing an interview now
with you in my olden days, my eye, I would be like this as I

(36:59):
did because I never let you knowthat I can't.
Because if I looked at you like this, you would turn and look
because my eye would go out here.
So when I was pitching a Little League, I didn't realize it was
like knives going through me, adults screaming.
And does that kid know where he's throwing?
Look at his eye, man. Does he know where he's
throwing? And I'd go home and my mother

(37:22):
would come in my room. I could feel it to today.
I'd go room and I would cry likea baby.
So, so hurt. I'd look at the man, I look at
the mirror. I couldn't look at the mirror.

(37:45):
My eye was, I couldn't control. It was something out of my
control. I had no control about that.
And it was a bother me, bother me.
You wouldn't even ask girls out for a date.
She felt like you want to look at me.
And it was just a tough mentallya time and getting teased all
the time. And I beg people out there, I

(38:07):
beg people help people that havea dilemma.
Don't hurt them, don't hurt themand put knives to them.
Might be you. It might be someone you love.
In essence, I was really bulliedand I didn't realize it.
I tried to make jokes of guys say, hey man, you know where you
throw it, Look at you ride. And I laughed about until they
go in my room. I didn't laugh.

(38:28):
Why does even today, thinking back about that make you so
emotional? It just, I don't know it, it, it
brings back such unbelievable memories to me.
There's certain things in my life because I sit here today,
I'm like a little kid who can't believe what's happened in my
life. I, I, I wake up every day.
My wife always tells me, you know, Gee, was you act like this

(38:50):
is something new to you being a having some success.
But I, I think it's, it's unbelievable what's happening.
It won't happen because I learned two things from my mom
and dad, two things and I could hear them telling me today, my
mother would say to me, 5th grade education.
My parents, if they had a fifth grade education, they had a lot,

(39:10):
but they had a doctor to love. I got so much love at home.
It was unbelievable. I was always meant them in their
eyes to be the best. When I got fired by the
business, My father, do they know what they're doing?
Are they crazy? They know how good you are.
I mean, you know how good that makes you feel that your parents
think to it. I tell parents all the time,
find something beautiful to say to your kids.

(39:32):
It means so much to them. I remember going with my buddy
once, the Little League game here, his son was playing the
Little League guy's name Art. And I, I'll go with Art to the
game and his son did a nice job.And I was walking off and what
my wife and we're walking off and there's this father, he's in
his son's face. The kid is crying hysterically.

(39:53):
You're embassed me strangle 3 times.
I come here to see you. I want to go over and say
something. My wife is pulling me by the
arm. I want to say, are you kidding
me? The kid came here to play, so it
would be a great experience, something positive.
But my parents instilled in me one my mother used to say all
the time when I was chasing the dream of wanting to be a college

(40:16):
coach. I would write letters to all
these schools. We had won back-to-back state
championships and I wanted, likeanybody else, like you want to
climb the ladder. We all have dreams and goals.
So I wanted to go from my high school coaching to coaching
college. So I was realistic.
I would write letters to some ofthe schools in the area I wasn't

(40:36):
right in, the Kentucky and Carolina and Duke and UCLA and
then and I got more rejections. I used to always tell people I
got more rejections than the Dean of Harvard gives out.
And we had a stack. When we moved to Florida, we had
a stack of letters. And my wife and I laughed and we
looked at them, all these rejections.
But along that way, I came home one day and I will never forget

(40:59):
the certain things in your life you just don't forget.
I remember coming in the house and only moms and dads, they
have a way of knowing what's happening with their kids.
And my mother says Richie was never Dick.
Richie, I don't see that fire. When you like, you always have
that spirit. You call it spirit, not energy
or enthusiasm spirit. As a mom, my buddies are right,

(41:21):
man. All my buddies were telling me,
hey Rich, you're going to be allyour life teaching 6th grade,
coaching high school. You don't know anybody.
You weren't a great player. Face reality chasing these crazy
dreams. I finally was giving up.
I said they're right. They're right.
I was getting my my masters in administration because I was
going to be a principal of the elementary school and coach

(41:43):
along the way in high school. So anyway, my mother sat me down
on a couch. I'll never forget this.
I'm your hand and she said, Richie, listen to me.
Don't listen to your friends. Don't ever, ever was the best
advice I shared in my latest book.
Don't ever, ever believe in the word can't.
Don't allow can't to be part of your life.

(42:06):
Richie and I would hear maybe 15times a day for my mom and dad.
Richie, be good to people and people would be good to you.
Well, I'm at 13 Hall of Fame's 13 Hall of Fame, including the
Basketball Hall of Fame. OK, right up there.
I'm in there. I can't run.

(42:26):
I tell people this. I speak, I mention this all the
time. I can't run, I can't jump, I
can't shoot. I got a body by linguine.
I'm in 13 Hall of Fame because all my life I've had passion and
pride. I just call a bunch of kids.
Just the other day I said, you know, you find a lot about
people, not when they give you the gold trophy, not when they

(42:47):
tell you the best. You find out about people, how
they handle adversity. I was telling some kids who
didn't feel they did well in their tournament and tennis.
I said, you know what, the champdoesn't allow that to multiply
to the next tournament. They learn from what they've
done and they move on. And Derek Jeter, when he played,

(43:09):
went over 4, but he never allowed it to compound.
The new day was a new day. There's too many athletes.
They allow it to compound, go from one to the next to the
next, and before long they're ina big slump.
And I think in life that is so true, because life has bumps and
bruises. I've had a lot of bumps.

(43:29):
I've had a lot of bruises. I've taken some hits when I
started out. He talks too much, he's loud,
he's violates all the rules. Oh, really?
Some guys ought to try it, man. Because I'll tell you one thing.
I've talked from here. And when you talk from your
heart and you talk from here, a lot of good things happen.
Your dad worked in a factory pressing coats after his

(43:50):
business failed. Ended up going back to that job
and then taking a second job working security in the
evenings. What do you think that taught
you about work ethic? Well, told me about discipline,
talking about work ethic, talking about love.
I watched my father come home onFridays.
He would take his money out of his pocket that he made, put it
on the table, X number of dollars for food, X number of

(44:11):
dollars for for our food, X number of dollars for the
insurance man. And then that one day we would
go to Barcelona's and Garfield. They're going to love.
What I'm saying is, I haven't mentioned Barcelona's in
Garfield, NJ, for pizza as a family.
It was the greatest thing, man. Family go down to have some
pizza on a Friday night. But they were proud.

(44:31):
They were always about Graham, about family.
It was always about putting foodon the table for your kids.
I was one of the first in my family to go to college.
My father begged me. He took me one year in the
summer to the factory and I go to the factory.
It's a sweatshop, anybody in T-shirts and sweat coming and he

(44:52):
press coats then bring him coats.
I've run no coats over to him and a more coats, he pressed.
And he was paid by the piece, right?
By the piece work prayed by every coat you press, you make a
few dollars more and he's banging those suckers out.
We're getting a car on a way home and I got more of an
education. And he'd say to me, Richie, you
don't want to do this, Richie. He'd come home, eat, would eat
at the table, put a security guard uniform on and go walk the

(45:15):
mall 6 to 12. And that was his existence.
And I, I really had a hystericalmoment with my agent and IMG and
went the final four. And she says to me, I don't know
if you noticed or not, I got to tell you this because your
schedule here is out of whack. He said, But I'm going to tell

(45:36):
you, I got speaking engagements for you, for this company, for
that company, lunch hour, breakfast.
And then SportsCenter wants you 6:00 and 11:00.
And you're doing the games on ESPN International, something
new we do the last couple years.You're doing a semifinal in the
final game. You go and I start laughing.
She's not going to get done from7:00 to 1.
So what are you laughing? I said, you can't be serious.

(45:59):
I said, it's stealing money. My father worked.
He did that every day for monthsand years.
I'm going to do 3 as I'm gettingpaid a lot to speak right.
She's yeah, you get bailing. I said come on.
I make more than one speech thatmy father made is for the last
three 4-5 years. And he worked 7:00 AM to 4:30
PM, came home to dinner and change and then 6:00 PM to to

(46:21):
midnight. You know, I was talking to your
daughter, Terry, yesterday and she told me and I quote, on some
level, my dad almost feels guilty for his success.
What do you think of that? I don't know.
I just feel I see people struggle and really sometimes
people ask me, you know, we've been fortunate in my life.

(46:43):
We just gave a big scholarship to Notre Dame to help kids.
I want to do something positive in my life is winding down.
I'm in the last chapter, man. I can't hide it.
I can't hide the number. I can be enthusiastic, I can be
energetic. I can have all this spirit and I
do and I feel young till I look in the mirror.
Then I realize how old I am. But I I feel like a 12 year old.

(47:05):
But I want to be good to people because people have been so good
to me. I can't believe, like I said, I,
my mother and father would go nuts to be able to see the
things that have happened for me.
And it's all my upbringing. I tried to never.
I told my daughters, you know, things have changed in my life
materialistically, but if my character ever changes, I try to

(47:27):
treat everybody. Just before you did this
interview, man, I'm at a restaurant here and a woman came
over with her daughters. I want to thank you so much.
I said thank me for what? Taking a picture and thank you.
She said all the money you're raising for Pediatrics.
She said my daughter is a cancer, is like 10 years old.

(47:48):
She said she got cancer when shewas 5.
And it's now five years. And we're celebrating because
they say five years is the time frame that you can beat it.
And she has. But I want to thank you.
And I'm telling you, I had a mother.
The name is Peters. Kyle Peters is the youngster.
She brought me to tears, broughtme to tears at my gala.

(48:08):
I mean, how powerful is this? She gives me a big hug.
Missus Peters, Jen Peters the name is and she says you saved
my my son's life. I said I saved your son's life.
How did I ever do that? She said the $1,000,000 that you
guys raised in the name of Peyton Wright for brain cancer,

(48:29):
The doctors told us that when Kyle got brain cancer, that the
research that was done through that $1,000,000 that was given
to them, they were able to make steps and move in a positive
way. And it affected his life.
And today he's cancer free. And she gave me a big hug.
I mean, I just shook. I shook.

(48:51):
That's powerful stuff. And, and I, I just, I want to
give back. And my daughters, I know what
she means about guilty. And I always say to them, I want
to do this more for this one. I want to do that more.
I want to go out where people Remember Me as a guy with a lot
of pride, a lot of passion, got overcame some obstacles.
I mean, I'm not the smoothest guy in TV.

(49:13):
I don't have that articulate waylike many guys have in a
polished way. But I noticed the one thing I'm
noticing now, I said a lot of guys, my thing wasn't stick man,
my thing. John Madden, Chris Berman,
That's who we are, that's who weare.
Terry Bradshaw, that's who we are.
We are that. We are not made in a journalism

(49:34):
school. I wish I did have all the other.
I have such respect for all the guys I work with, whether it be
Dan Schulman, Davey O'Brien, Brad Nessler, Mike Tarikos,
whoever I work with over the years, Brett Musburger.
Those guys are pros, pros. They've learned the art, how to
get in and out. They handle all the traffic, all

(49:55):
the commercials. We as are basically jocks
talking about our sport. And that I could do with my
sleep. You mentioned wanting to do you
know something positive in your life, which obviously you've
done a ton already. I think raised 15 plus
$1,000,000 for, you know, cancersince your gala started.

(50:19):
Jim Valvano guys I believe really started becoming friends
when you were working together at the ESPN.
Explain how you found out he hadcancer.
I got a call one day from the Washington Speaker's room.
I'm proud to say I've been with for over 20 years.
And they booked me speaking engagements all over.

(50:39):
And they called me up and they said, are you free this day,
this day? And it was like soon.
Usually I book you a couple months in advance.
And I said she was one. So well, we got one of our
people can't make these engagements.
And I said, well, who is it? Why would rather not?
I said, come on now. And he finally said to me, Jim
Valvano. I said, Jim Valvano, why can't

(51:02):
he make these engagements? They said call Jimmy up and I
called him up and he start crying on the phone and we both
start talking. And I was just, you know, a
certain people you feel like areinvincible.
I thought Jimmy V Hansen is loving fun guy with all.
I can't believe that he said I have cancer Dick and it's bad

(51:25):
and we talked and it's somethingI I tried to find this about a
month ago and I can't. We moved from our house in
Substantia to here. But Jimmy when he got his cancer
back then this is 1992 I believedied in 93.
He sent me a letter handwritten.I will never forget it because

(51:47):
it touched me so much. He wrote me a letter and in the
letter he basically said, Dick love you buddy said slow down,
slow down. You go in 5 million different
ways, speaking TV, hear commercials, whatever.
Slow down writing books. He said, trust me, it'll get

(52:08):
you. You can't live like that here.
He was battling cancer and he's worried about what I was doing.
And we stayed in touch. A lot of people don't know this,
but Jimmy and I probably talked almost regularly during that
whole period. And then when he, I'll never
forget the first ESPY show, wentto the rehearsal.

(52:29):
When it came from the rehearsal and came back to the hotel, I
was blown away as to what they were going to do.
I sort of video presentation about him and his career and how
we're going to have the first, you know, Jimmy V should receive
the Arthur Ashe Award. I was going to introduce some.
Justin Hoffman introduced me, and it was really going to be a

(52:52):
special night, so I called them up.
So I wanted to make sure he was all on board.
And when I called them up, he said barely.
I could barely hear him talk. He's going, Dick, come on.
I don't. I could care.
I feel miserable now. I'm sick as a dog.
I can't do this. I can't do that.
Jimmy, you got to come to New York, man.
You got to come. This is special.

(53:13):
Well, Mike Shashefsky flew with him on a plane with his wife.
Jimmy was so sick on that plane.If you would have seen him at
the event and in the hotel before he got up to speak, you
would have said there is no way,no way shape or form that he'd
be able, that he'd be able to carry on and speak.
But somehow through the magic hedid.

(53:36):
I remember, I remember telling one of the people that were
there, I don't know what's the production assistant, whoever,
maybe we should bring a microphone right to his seat and
don't let him get up. And when I introduce him, have
him just say a few words. Thank you.
There. Never in my wildest dreams that
I ever thought he'd give the speech that he gave.

(53:58):
I've got to go. And I got one last thing.
I said it before and I'm going to say it again.
Can't sit, can take take away all my physical abilities.
It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it
cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going
to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you
all. I remember him when he saw me

(54:18):
talking, he said, what are you doing?
So I'm trying to make it easy for you.
He was throwing up in a wheelchair.
He was, I mean, it was unbelievable.
Well, finally he just said get me up on a stage and we got him
up. Mike Shashefsky, I think it was
Joe Theismann myself. We carried him up on a stage,
basically. He got up.
I thought he said say thank you.If you watch, I'm standing to

(54:41):
his right for the whole speech because I thought he's going to
take the award. I give it all, say thank you,
but sit down. I'm standing in awe.
It was the greatest speech it has.
You know, I feel this way, Graham.
You know, we can talk about greatness all we want.
To me, the definition of greatness in an individual is

(55:02):
the impact they make on others lives for generation after
generation. I don't know the exact number by
the time you go in air, but I'llguarantee it's probably 150, a
160 million that has been already raised in his name for
research in all forms of cancer.Think about the lives that he's

(55:23):
affected and the people that he's helped along that way.
That is magical to me. He's a legend Beyond legends, an
icon are the people from the V Foundation, from John Saunders
to Mike Shashefsky to Harry Rhodes and Washington Speakers
rule to his family, to his wife Pam.
All those people, they work. His brothers Nick and Bobby,

(55:47):
those people work religiously trying to to raise dollars to
help others because that was Jimmy's goal and his dream to
help others battle that unbelievable disease.
I will never forget one time. I mean, I could go on and on
about this, but I'm at ESPN. He calls me up to his room.

(56:08):
He's we're going to go on here. He wanted to work right till the
end. This is when he's sick.
He very sick. He calls me up to his room.
It's a Sunday night and some kind of Sinatra show was on.
He's got shorts on. He's laying in bed and he Aqua
was eating in a cafeteria at thehotel across from ESPN.
He said come up the room. And I went up there and he just

(56:30):
starts like, unbelievably cryingtears.
He's punching a wall. Start punching a wall.
Jimmy, He was just take your worst toothache and run it
through your whole body. That's what I feel.
See a lot of people who know this.
Jimmy did not want to take the morphine to help the pain
because he felt that that was admitting that he couldn't beat

(56:52):
it. And he told me at the time when
he told me it was a very marginal percentage, small
percentage could beat what he had.
And they he said I'm going to beone of those guys to beat that.
I'm going to beat it. And he did everything, his
daughters taking him to church regularly, going for walks, for
exercise, doing everything he thought that can help.
And the pain was so severe, he finally gave in and utilize the

(57:17):
morphine at the end to try and eliminate that pain.
When I saw that, I remember calling my wife.
I said no guy should live like that, no human being.
And that's what a lot of these people, I'll tell you one of the
most heartwarming things that ever happened to me, they had
Dickie V Day at All Children's Hospital up in Saint Petersburg.

(57:37):
My wife and I go there and I have a children's book and the
children's book was kids from 2:00 to 6:00.
And a buddy of mine, Mike Valdez, he went out and bought
about 400 of them for everybody in the hospital.
Everybody nurses, patients, whoever wanted one, we gave 1.
So one of the people in charge asked me if I would read to all

(57:58):
the kids if they got them out oftheir rooms.
I said of course. So they brought all these kids
and I was going that day, I believe, to see a baseball game.
The Rays like it's few years back this happened maybe, I
don't know, 5-6 years ago. But anyway, they brought these
kids up and the book's simple B for ball, A for awesome, J for

(58:18):
jump. It's all for little kids
caricatures. It's funny as heck.
And I'm reading the book and these kids are laughing and
they're jumping and they're running and I get done.
I've sent to one of the nurses or pediatricians there was
standing there. I assume he's a pediatrician.
I said I don't get it. I don't get it.
These kids look healthier than my grandkids.

(58:38):
What I said, everybody you read to leukemia, neuroblastoma,
brain cancer, I said, you kidding me?
And they said, you know, Dick, Iremember one guy saying this to
me, Dick, you're going to baseball game.
Know what their parents do? They sit from 7:00 in the
morning to 11 O clock at night at their bedsides dreaming,

(59:02):
hoping and praying for a miracle.
And I share that in my speeches because we sometimes don't
realize how lucky. I tell people all the time, they
firmly believe this. If you have your health and
you're able every day to live a healthy life, you're a
zillionaire, you're a billionaire, zillionaire,
whatever you want to be. Go to hospitals and see these

(59:25):
kids. They have made this year's final
four. They took me to Riley Children's
Hospital. I walked in here.
I could not believe some of the things I've witnessed and it if
you're a human being and you gothealthy kids, my grandkids are
playing baseball, tennis, I mean, knock wood.
We're lucky. It could change in one moment.
That is why people say, why are you so obsessed?

(59:47):
It seems raising money for kids,for Pediatrics.
Why? Because God forbid something
happened to my grandkids, I wantto make sure to research
knowledge because I'm going to tell you something that bothers
me and it really bothers me and should bother all the experts
out there as well. What have I told you that only
four percent, 4% of every dollarraised for Cancer Research goes

(01:00:13):
to Pediatrics 4% that's a crime.Kids, beautiful kids are future
not enough being researched doneto help them live.
I don't think a lot of people are aware.
I really don't grab I don't think people are aware aware of
that number. But 4% for kids?
That, my friend, is a crime. You said the hardest speech you

(01:00:35):
ever gave was speaking at the funeral of a one year old.
Adrian Little John, Adrian's dadcoaches in town here and we got
to know each other a little through Patrick Wright, who is a
great inspiration to me. Patrick and his wife Holly, I
think she summed it the best so I can paraphrase.

(01:00:55):
She gave a speech at one of our galas.
She just for a couple of minutesshe went was so powerful,
though, and I'm watching at our gala.
We have superstars beyond we've had, I mean, you name them Kenny
Chesney, Pat Riley, a Magic Johnson, all the coaches,
Climiso, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Bill

(01:01:16):
Self. I mean, who had all been with
us, all been with us, some coming every year.
But she got up and told the crowd it was a year.
I believe that Calipari had justlost the national championship
in that unbelievable game with Kansas when he was at Memphis.
He hit a three descendant overtime and they lost the

(01:01:36):
overtime. And she said to the crowd, she
said, I know you coaches feel a lot of, I'm paraphrasing her,
but I know you coaches feel a lot of pain and hurt when you
basically lose a game. It's like the end of the world.
And it should be that you're living.
That's what you do for a living.But you don't want coaches.
You're going to get another gameof coach.

(01:01:58):
I am never, ever going to get a chance to coach my little girl
Peyton. I watched little Peyton and I
think that's really what got me so fired up over kids.
Peyton was a neighbor of ours. I went to her funeral.
I watched a beautiful mom and dad who will live in an American
dream, late 30s, three beautifulkids.

(01:02:20):
And all of a sudden, Patrick tells me the story how his life
changed when they never knew. Wildest Dreams thought about the
word cancer because she was screaming about pain in her knee
and they did research first. I went there, Doctor said
growing pains, nothing wrong with her knee.
She would not stop screaming. She's screaming every night

(01:02:41):
about this pain she has. I was thinking of Jimmy V and
the pain that he had and that's probably what she had.
And they went back and he got somebody to do an MRI.
Another doctor of our whole body, Patrick tells the story
how he's sitting there and a radiologist walks in with the
with the X-ray, I guess the MRA report and he's talking to the

(01:03:03):
doctor and the doctor says, I'm stunned.
I have to talk to both. You please sit down.
He says, Patrick and Holly, I got the worst news in the world.
Your little girl screaming because she has a tumor the size
of a grapefruit on her spine. And the worst news is it's going
to metastasize and spread. My wife and I watched that

(01:03:25):
little girl from a beautiful little kid running around having
fun like any normal kid. We watched her sit in a
wheelchair, she come to the broken egg in a wheelchair, be
paralyzed. We then watch to go blind.
She lost her vision and then we watch to lose her life.
And I went to that funeral that day and I'm telling you, it

(01:03:47):
ripped my insides, ripped my insides.
And when the funeral ended, I'm an emotional guy.
Just walk and tell. I went over to the mom and dad.
I said we can't save your child.But I guarantee you, my buddies
and I are going to raise $1 million in less than a year in
our name and help other kids. And we hugged and we did it.

(01:04:10):
And I've watched Patrick and hiswife, they go out and help
others through their foundation.And the one thing that's amazed
me through my 11 years and everydollar I raise, and I beg
people, if you can help us, you might be helping your child.
Just go to dickvitaleonline.com and you'll see me there with a

(01:04:30):
beautiful little girl, Lacey Holsworth.
Click on air and you can make a donation.
And it goes through the V Foundation and those dollars,
every dollar, it's not percentage.
We have a grant and off that endowment and that grant, $17
million, all the expenses are paid and running the foundation.

(01:04:50):
So every dollar you donate goes to research and it will go for
Pediatrics. But I watched how courageous
those people are. But you're talking about I spoke
at Adrian's funeral. It was brutal, man, watching a
mom and dad put their child. I told you earlier I was from a
black tie affairs, corporate events, Hall of Fame events,
standing there watching a motherand father put their child to

(01:05:14):
rest. How do you get worse?
I mean, it was as tough as can be.
And I got to know those kids. Those kids are beautiful.
I think I sent you a flyer. There's twelve of them that have
been with us at my gala who no longer are here, who lost their
lives. They lost the battle.
But there are a lot of other kids we can share who have made
it. The Jake Taraskas, the Kyle

(01:05:36):
Peters. I can go on and on.
Cole Iker, so many beautiful kids out there.
Tatum, Tatum Parker's as good asit gets.
She can't do enough to help other kids.
These are kids who are cancer survivors and we bring them to
our event, showing that dollars do work.
But I'm obsessed with it. That's my biggest thing now in

(01:05:57):
my life. As I go forward in my life, on
how many days I have for my lastbreath, I'm going to beg, I'm
going to plead with corporate giants, with people in the world
of athletics. We need money for kids and they
have to understand they might behelping someone.
They. Love that.

(01:06:17):
I want to completely change gears here and talk about your
other passion. You'll get back to talking about
your other passion, basketball, and some notable moments from
your broadcasting career. Michael Jordan, I believe,
played in one of the greatest games you ever broadcast.
What do you recall from it? Oh, that was the Virginia game.

(01:06:40):
Ralph Sampson, Well, it's great,you know, Michael Jordan, Ralph
Sampson doesn't get better than that.
I mean, two of the greatest of all time.
At the time, Ralph was the talk of the nation.
I mean, Ralph Sampson, my memorytells me he's one of only two
players. I think Bill Walton did it as
well, became player of the year 3 consecutive years.
And it was a great game. I don't number one.

(01:07:01):
Number three, I think Virginia was #1 Carolina might have been
#3 and was played down at ChapelHill, and they're all the
building before the Dean Dome. And it was unreal.
At the end of the game, Michael was so sensational.
He leads them in a big comeback with a win.
And I remember going on the air saying, forget about Ralph
Sampson, basically the best player in the nation pound for

(01:07:24):
pound, Inch Ridge is Super S Michael Jordan.
And I mean, I had to go to Virginia.
I didn't realize I had a game coming up in Virginia.
I go down there, man, They couldn't wait.
On the front page papers, Vitalis says Jordan's I work.
I see Ralph Sampson and he comeswalking toward me and he goes,
there's Michael Jordan's PR agent, man.

(01:07:46):
I said, come on, Ralph, you know, I think you're great.
But he's something else. And a funny point about it.
I spoke at a big event honoring all the greatest players in the
ACC. I mean, Ralph Sampson, all of
them. And Ralph comes up to me and he
whispers to me and he says you were right about Michael.
But it was a great game and Ralph certainly was a terrific

(01:08:09):
college player and a Hall of Famer.
You broadcast Lebron's first ever televised game.
What do you remember from that? One, you know what I remember
about that? I didn't want to do it.
That's the first game in my 30. Well, I don't know how many
years it was then at the time when he played, but I'm here 37
now. So you do the math, subtract

(01:08:29):
whatever it is, let's say 25 years or so.
I didn't want to do the game. When they called me, I said come
on now we're making this high school kid into like he's a God
so young. Give me a break.
No, Dick, we want you to do the game.
Then they hit me up. So you can do with Dan Schuman,
but you're also going to do withBill Wall.
I said Walton and I going to walk in that arena at a high

(01:08:50):
school game and make this kid like this is him.
I said he can't be half as good as what they're saying.
Well, we go down here and I cannot believe it.
He literally took his team against a team that had like
four or five Division One big time players and made them look
like they were junior varsity players.

(01:09:11):
That's how good he was. I remember talking to him after
and I said, LeBron, you are so much better than what I ever
dreamt you to be. I said so much better.
I said you're going to be besieged by all kinds of people.
All want to peace. You make good decisions.
And one thing that I'm very proud of, when you you follow

(01:09:31):
his career, he's been a tremendous role.
But I know people get on him about the decision he made.
It was the way it was done. But really you study what he has
done for people, what he's doingnow.
Give him money, scholarship money to kids in Akron.
He never forgot where he came from.
And we need more people like him.

(01:09:52):
On LeBron. I I was teasing the head of NBA.
He's a guy named Tim. You know, maybe you know Tim
Corrigan. Tim's a great guy.
He runs the NBA production at ESPNI said Tim, my one thing in
life bucket list. I want to do a LeBron game.
I did his first game ever on TVIwent on my career.

(01:10:12):
He said you're on, you really want to do it.
We're going to get that done. So I'm hoping that's my bucket
list that I can do a LeBron gamein the NBA.
She had a first year. Now see that exclusive?
LeBron, much like Michael Jordanalready has been, will be in the
Hall of Fame one day. You are as well.

(01:10:33):
How tough was it, though, on youthe first few times you were
nominated? Not getting in.
Really not as tough because I never felt my heart that I was
ever going to get in a Hall of Fame.
You really didn't, No. You know, I mean, you hear
people say, well, you contributed to game your
belonging. I don't think a lot of people
are aware of this. Bobby Knight.
Are you aware of Bobby Knight's situation with the Hall of Fame?

(01:10:53):
I bet he helped you out. But what?
What's even more impressive thanthat?
When you were broadcasting, whenhe was a coach, you guys weren't
all that close. He was pretty hard on you.
Bobby's a good, Bobby's a guy. If he likes you, he's going to
go go to bath for you. Well, one day Bob called me up
and he said to me, I don't know if you're going to get in the
Hall of Fame. It was the third time I was

(01:11:15):
nominated. He said, I'm going to tell you
what, you're going to feel like a Hall of Famer.
So I have letters from every living Hall of Famer, from John
Wooden Schefsky, right down the line.
He said, I have letters that they've written to the Hall of
Fame and how there should be no category, quote, contributions
to the game if Dickie V is not in.

(01:11:38):
And I started laughing. Really.
He said, yeah. He said, I started this because
I firmly believe it. I said, you don't have to do
that. Don't you know, Bob?
You don't tell me what to do, Dick.
Don't tell me what to do. I did it because it's the right
thing to do. And he said, here's what I'm
going to do. He said, whether you get it or
not, I've sent these wall to theHall of Fame, but I'm going to
send you copies. I'm going to send you a copy.

(01:11:59):
Coach Wooden's letter, it just brought me, I mean handwritten
letter. John Wooden.
There should be Dick Vital's passion for the game.
So been vital to the game of college.
It was really beautiful to see. And Bob did it.
And that year I got it. I got it.
What was it like reading those letters?
Oh, it's just, you know, these are guys I respect for.

(01:12:21):
You know, I get criticized sometimes and, you know, I guess
rightfully so. But I give criticized sometimes
about singing the praises of coaches.
Well, they don't understand. The games I've done over the
years are the best of the best. What games am I doing?
I'm doing games featuring the premier superstars, Hall of
Famous. So what am I going to sit there

(01:12:42):
and see? We live in a day and age.
It's so easy today with all the social media, radio, talk shows,
bury people, RIP people. When you have to face them, when
you have to walk in the locker room, they don't even know who
the heck is ripping them. Some guy and some little small
radio show burying guys. That's easy to do, That's easy
to do. I always try to look, you know,

(01:13:03):
my life. I try to look at the glass half
filled rather than half empty. I try to look for that which is
positive. But along the way, I like to
think I have been analytical andI have been critical.
When somebody deserves some criticism, I know I've done
that. I don't care what anyone says,
just go to the tapes and look atthem and research them.

(01:13:24):
But again, none of us are going to be perfect.
We can't be perfect. I respect the media.
I love the media. I love going in a media room
talking with all the guys, sharing moments with him, even
though he's not a RIP me. I've had guys, my wife would
say, how can you talk to him? He ripped you, man.
What am I going to do, get mad at him?
What am I going to gain by that?But I am sensitive.
People say, oh, I hear guys in sports.

(01:13:45):
I don't read what this, I don't care what they say.
Well, then you have no pride. I care.
I do give a damn what they say. With regards to the Hall of
Fame, and I know that they pointed you to give like a 5
minute speech. It ends up lasting 25 or 30
minutes. I, I hadn't watched it until the
other day. From minute one to minute 25 or
30 was I was. Sure.

(01:14:05):
It actually compared to some guys, right?
I really there's no way in the world that you could get up and
think about all the people, Graham, that have been good to
you and do it in 5 minutes. You just can't do it.
Well, regardless, it was an amazing speech and, and I mean,
I, I was glued to the screen. I was watching on YouTube the
the other day. You've obviously mentioned

(01:14:26):
you're an emotional guy. You didn't get emotional there,
but you did really get emotionalat the college court dedication
ceremony. What about that got to you?
You know, it's really amazing. I'm glad you brought that up
away. They were taking bets all the
ESPN guys. How long before I broke down and
cried at the Hall of Fame? And for some reason I don't know

(01:14:49):
what got me that I didn't I I just I I was in my glory, I
guess too. I'm looking.
I mean, there's a I'm a I'm a boy a bullet dreams.
I told you early in our discussion and here I am looking
in front of me. Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Pat
Riley, Bob Cousy, John Thompson,Bob Knight.

(01:15:11):
I'm looking at all these people,the fabric, John Havlicek, the
fabric of basketball sitting in that room and I'm standing there
getting inducted with guys. I thought the world of Ewing,
Elijah Wan, I mean, Dantley, PatRiley.
I mean, it was unbelievable. Kathy Rush.
It was just an incredible moment, an incredible high.

(01:15:34):
And but I just, I let it go for my heart.
I must have rehearsed. My wife had a kick out of what I
gave my speech. She must have heard my speech
5000 times, in a bathroom, in bed at night, going over and
over. That's injured because that was
my question when I was watching it, if you rehearsed or if you
just. Let me tell it happened.
So when the speech ended, she said to me, that was nothing

(01:15:58):
what I heard. I said, I don't know what
happened. Lord, everything I've memorized,
all that stuff went out. I just said, you know what, talk
right from here, talking about parents, talking about ESPN,
probably the greatest compliment.
And he doesn't even know this I've ever received as far as I'm
concerned. I was inducted a little while
back into the Hall of Fame of broadcasters.

(01:16:21):
And introducing me was George Boldenheimer, our president at
the time, ESPNCEO president. And George got up and told the
crowd, So a lot of you don't know this, he said.
And the crowd was filled with all the Giants and broadcasting
with their man and Costas and Patrick.
And they were there for many reasons, for honors they were

(01:16:42):
getting as well. But he got up and told the crowd
he said 1981 when I was hired byESPN meeting him, he said my
first job was to drive Dickie V whenever he came to Bristol work
in a meal room and Dickie V basically would give me all this
advice. I was basically in his eyes,

(01:17:02):
Doctor Dick before there was a Doctor Phil because I would tell
him he was saying my girlfriend's getting upset with
me. Man, here I am working in the
mailroom. I want to be a marketing.
I want to get an ad mark and he went to a great college Denison.
And I would say to him, George, there's something about you.
You're going to make it big. I know you are.
And one day I'm sitting in Atlanta airport, mid 90s and

(01:17:27):
plane delayed. Grab the paper.
USA TODAY named the president ofESPN, George Bodom.
I said, holy, that's my, that's my former driver.
True story. I called up his office.
I told the secretary I didn't want to talk to him.
A voice message. I'm going nowhere with my life.

(01:17:49):
What am I doing? I'm driving you around.
All I do is that I'm working in the mailroom.
I'd say George, you're the president, man.
Don't forget me. I want a new contract.
I got my five year contract baby, instead of a wristwatch.
But George pulled the crowd thatnight.
The greatest compliment I got, he said to the crowd.
Dick Vital treated me like royalty when I was his driver,

(01:18:14):
and he's treated me the same waynow.
And the reason that was the greatest compliment, it hit my
head immediately. My mom would be so proud, and my
dad, because they always said tome, Richie, be good to people
and people would be good to you no matter what they do in life.
I would have matched my mom and dad with any Harvard graduate,

(01:18:37):
with any Princeton graduate, as people, as people who cared, as
people had a harder goal, as people who gave a damn about
their family. Was it just book knowledge?
A lot of people got book knowledge, but they don't have
ability to communicate. You know, I don't.
I'm not saying that I don't wantyou to have book knowledge.

(01:18:58):
I mean, my daughters went to Notre Dame.
They got their masters at Notre Dame.
I think it's fantastic, but it'spart of life is communicating
with people, getting along with people, all people.
I remember when I was moving to Florida.
So Oh my God, you don't. Nobody down South.
Give me a break. I don't care where you live.
Well, it's the Midwest, East, West, South, people of people,

(01:19:20):
man. And if you're good to people,
people would be good to you. What?
Would you say is the most satisfying moment from your
career to date? My most satisfying moment, I was
watching the joy and jubilation in my family at the Hall of Fame
ceremony, the Naismith Hall of Fame.
It doesn't get bigger than that.I remember 1 full message I got.

(01:19:43):
I got so many, but one that stood out, the one that stood
out to me when I coached the Pistons, I had a great center.
Unfortunately had some knee surgery when I was there and
wasn't able to play the full game like I would like.
Well, Bob Lanier, Bob Lanier leaves me a message.
He goes, my man Dick. I'll never forget this man, my

(01:20:05):
man Dick. We weren't too long together
with the Pistons, but we'll be together for life now, my
brother. Together for life in the
greatest club you could be on. And it's a very exclusive club.
And you are now one of us. Congrats, brother Hall of Famer.
I will never forget that. And that's why I feel when you

(01:20:27):
go to the Hall of Fame now my pictures right up the my
grandkids get see Jordan, you see all those people?
Wow, it's it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.
And the seed of joy, my sister, my brother, I said it in my
speech, they're Hall of Famers. You're a Hall of Famer.
The kind of life you live. There are a lot of Hall of
Famers. I always try to tell guys no one

(01:20:47):
gets in the Hall of Fame, whether it be baseball,
basketball, football, whatever, by themself.
You get in there because people have opened doors.
What bothers me and troubles me,a lot of the great athletes
unfortunately forget where they come from and they forget about
those that have opened doors forthem.
Nobody gets in there by themselves.

(01:21:07):
Somebody took you at age 5 or 6.I gave a speech to a bunch of
kids recently and told them, sayI love you, man.
I love you to your mom and dad. There's a guardian or
grandparent. Somebody made it happen for you
to go to a camp. Somebody made it happen for you
to be at this camp. You just didn't get here by
yourself and eventually some of those kids are going to make it.

(01:21:28):
Because of your success, you've earned the ability to have the
convenience of being able to flyprivate to games that you do
now. No, no, financially I do that
right. I want to make clear ESPN does
not pay for that. They.
Reimburse you for first class. First class?
Yep. Yep.
How has that changed your life? Changed my life job.

(01:21:50):
We went out the private plane. I wouldn't be working.
I wouldn't be working because I give you a simple time frame.
I did a little charting of it all last year.
My my season basically runs fromlet's say November to the
beginning of April. So you look at maybe 100 and
25130 days. What if I told you because of a

(01:22:11):
private plane versus going commercial, I was home like over
70 some of those days. It's unbelievable.
You can't put a price on that. And at my age now, it's vital
that I spent some time with my family as well because every day
is one day closer, you know, to the ultimate end.
And, and I just think it's been phenomenal.

(01:22:31):
But I do that on my own. I've been very blessed
financially to be able to earn dollars away from broadcasting
that I set up into what I call aPlanica.
It's a very expensive. I would have never done this
when I was 50 or 45 or 55 because at that time you're
saving for your future. But right now, you know, my
future is, you know, taking careof my grandkids, taking care of

(01:22:55):
my my daughters and sons in lawsand making sure that they have
something later in life and helping others.
If you're doing 7:00 game for Duke in North Carolina, take me
through what the schedule is from when you're able to leave
here to when. Well, you know, we don't have to
report the announcers till 5:00,two hours prior to game time.

(01:23:17):
Prior to that though, the day before you're on a form of
coaches, producers, directors, getting all your information and
all. But as far as the actual
itinerary, as long as you're there by 5:00, but I make sure
I'm there like, but let's say 7:00 game, I leave here maybe 11
in the morning. I get there 1130, hang around,
talk to some of the coaches or local people and then go out and

(01:23:40):
they have a room for me at ESPN,maybe do a Sports Center hit and
then do the game and get a planeand come right back home.
Now, if I went commercial, you go to night before, you know,
can't get out after the game, soyou're going to go home 12 noon.
So it takes three days, three days of your life.
Well, three days of my life is precious.
So it's really added to my career.

(01:24:00):
It's added. It's money.
People said to me, man, you've wasted all that money.
I don't call it a waste of money.
First of all, it's money I neverhad.
It's from outside. When I first approached my wife
about it, you know, I said it's going to cost a lot of money.
But I promise you one thing, it'll never come from my checks
from ESPN, and I'm fortunate. Not good.

(01:24:21):
I have not touched an ESPN checkfor plain use ever.
So that's all from extra income.How would you describe what
life's like today? My life's been a fantasy, a
dream. If it ended today, I could not
describe it any better than the fact that I've been a boy.

(01:24:43):
A boy, a dream. I've lived a life blessed with a
great wife, 45 years, Hall of Famer, great kids, beautiful
grandchildren, have a beautiful home, make a decent living.
I've worked with beautiful people.
I may not always agree about allthe decisions that are made, but
I, I work with some beautiful people and I, I, I just been so

(01:25:07):
touched magically by the man upstairs.
I have really been a blessed guyand I hope it doesn't end.
I want to go on and on and I want to be that guy that walks
in to do a game at 100 years of age right now.
I got 24 more years to go. I'm going to make it happen.

(01:25:28):
And you will be sitting in that chair and you'll be interviewing
me. You'll be 53 at the time.
You'll be sitting there and saying, Dick, I interviewed you
when I was 29. What does it feel?
How at 100? Oh, wow, you can dream, can't
you? The dream, man, That's what the
country's about, dreaming. The greatest country of all, no

(01:25:48):
doubt about it. I'm going to be like Muhammad
Ali now. And the greatest country of all,
America. Love it baby, love it.
Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to my chat
with Dick Vital. For the entire Dicky V playlist,
including a clip of him driving me around town, head to
youtube.com/graham Bensinger. Also, don't forget to follow me

(01:26:11):
on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Graham Bensinger.
Thanks again for listening.