Dick Vitale announces benign lymph node following ultrasound

Dick Vitale’s latest health update was a positive one as he announced the scan of the lymph node found in his neck was benign.

“I just finished getting the ultrasound of the Lymph node found in my neck area on yesterday’s PET SCAN … it is benign !,” Vitale wrote on Twitter. “Thanks to the many that have sent messages -texts – prayers – trust me they motivate me to keep battling. They are so so appreciated.”

Vitale, in his improving health, announced in March he targeted a November 2024 return to the booth for ESPN’s college basketball coverage.

Vitale was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer last summer and was unable to call games this past season.

Vitale underwent treatments, which wiped out the cancer, but getting his voice back to a point where it can call games was a process.

The good news is that Vitale got to the point to target a return to sportscasting. He provided an update on where things stood with his health a few months ago.

“Today we had a very eventful day starting at 7:30 in the morning with an examination and a scoping of my vocal cords,” Dick Vitale posted on Facebook. “I had a 4 hour major surgery on my vocal cords about 6 weeks ago. Today was to see how I am recovering from the surgery after dealing with cancer on my vocal cords plus the 35 radiation treatments.

“In all, the news was very positive and Dr Zeitals said the healing process is much better than he anticipated. He now has granted me permission to resume talking but I must be in control & be careful to not overdue it. His goal is that I should be ready to do games on ESPN at the start of the new season in November, 2024.”

Vitale has served as a college basketball analyst and ambassador at ESPN since the 1979-80 season. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

The 84-year-old got into broadcasting after previously being a coach. He spent time coaching at the high school level, college level and the NBA.