During his time as ESPN’s lead college basketball analyst, Dick Vitale was a regular presence in Durham and Chapel Hill. Especially when Duke or North Carolina were hosting each other in the sport’s preeminent rivalry.
Vitale’s 35-year run calling ESPN’s coverage of the Tobacco Road Rivalry came to an end in 2015, as ESPN promoted Jay Bilas into a position to call his alma mater’s regular-season matchups with the Tar Heels. But while Dickie V said all the right things at the time, we’re now learning that he didn’t exactly take the demotion in stride privately.
In a profile of the college basketball broadcasting legend published on Monday, Sports Business Journal‘s Tom Friend detailed the highs and lows of Vitale’s career and the unmistakable mark he’s left on the sports (and society at large). And that included new information regarding his reaction to being removed from broadcasting the UNC vs. Duke matchup, which was made by then-ESPN president John Skipper.
“That really, deeply hurt him,” an unnamed colleague told Friend of Vitale’s reaction.
Apparently, that feeling lingered for at least three years. According to Friend, Vitale approached longtime ESPN executive George Bodenheimer during the former Detroit coach’s induction into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2018 in hopes of regaining the gig, only to find out that Bodenheimer was no longer with the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
Nevertheless, Vitale has remained at ESPN ever since, and while he may no longer be the network’s top analyst, he’s still a staple of its college basketball coverage. And the hurt from being removed from the Duke vs. UNC game has obviously paled in comparison to the cancer battles he’s endured over the course of the last few years, the most recent of which cost him the better part of the past two seasons until he returned to the broadcast booth earlier this year.
Last month, Vitale signed a new deal with ESPN that will keep him under contract through the 2027-28 season. And to that end, Friend also had new details on the network’s plans for the 86-year-old, revealing that he’ll likely call two games a week as a part of a three-man booth.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.