Dick Vitale sounds on the phone exactly like he sounds when he calls a Duke–North Carolina game. He can’t help himself. He’s eating breakfast at First Watch café in Lakewood Ranch, Fla., on the morning of the first Sweet 16 games, trying to explain how Purdue can stop Tennessee’s Admiral Schofield. When he hangs up, he’ll talk hoops with anyone who strolls past and notices that telltale bald head and foghorn voice. But with the basketball conversation will come a flier and a more serious message.
The only thing 79-year-old Dickie V cares about more than college basketball is raising money for pediatric cancer research.