Dick Vitale plans to resume broadcasting college basketball games after vocal cord cancer

SARASOTA - The college basketball world soon will be back on its axis.

Dick Vitale is set to return to the ESPN microphone.

“I’m telling you, I’m emotional, I’m excited,” Vitale said in an emotional Twitter post. “I didn’t speak, you’ve got to understand, for seven months. You’re the first people hearing my voice in a long, long time.”

In the post, the 84-year-old Lakewood Ranch resident and ESPN college basketball announcer said he’s planning to broadcast the Nov. 28 game between Miami and Kentucky after completing treatment for vocal cord cancer.

Vitale’s final treatment was 35 daily radiation doses at the Sarasota Memorial Radiation Oncology Center, after which Vitale had to rest his voice for six weeks.

“All the guys down at Kentucky, I hope and pray I can be there,” Vitale said. “I plan on being there. And I plan on being in (speaking) moderation up until that time.”

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Also on the video was Vitale’s doctor, Dr. Steven Zeitels, the Director of the Center for Laryngeal Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, who said his 84-year-old patient has done “remarkably well.”

Said Zeitels, “The tissues are all healed. At this point, he can start using his voice. He’ll see how long it takes to recover. We had planned to look under the microscope in the operating room, but it looks so terrific that we are going to wait on that because I see no evidence of the cancer whatsoever.”

Sometime in the future, Dr. Zeitels said an endoscopic procedure to “enhance” Vitale’s voice could be performed.

“Given the remarkable recovery he’s had in the last few weeks,” he said, “the best pathway now is patience, and let’s see how Dick can heal himself and get back to what he loves to do.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: After beating vocal cord cancer, Vitale to return to calling college basketball on ESPN