SARASOTA, Fla. — The energy around the valet line at The Ritz-Carlton picked up in the late afternoon when an unassuming green vehicle pulled up. The door opened, and the man of the evening peeked out from the passenger’s seat.
Dick Vitale arrived for his gala — ready, again, to raise millions of dollars for pediatric cancer research and to spotlight the children on his All-Courageous Team who would benefit from it.
But Friday night was different. This time, it was Vitale who needed help.
A routine quarterly screening last month led to an unexpected diagnosis for the ESPN icon. Cancer, again. Melanoma in his lung and liver cavity.
Although Vitale has beaten cancer four times already, the 86-year-old — who spent this season back on college basketball sidelines, including calling his first NCAA Tournament game — has been open about the challenge of going five-for-five. The first immunotherapy treatments rocked him with two days of chills, fever and fatigue. He was supposed to have another round last week, but doctors delayed it so he’d have the strength to be where he belongs.
At the center seat of the center table of the 21st Dick Vitale Gala.
“It just shows who he is,” said N’jhari Jackson, a regular gala guest who fought autoimmune issues as a child but, at age 23, has graduated from the All-Courageous Team to the alumni club. “He could kind of duck off, do his own thing, take care of his own health and kind of get back to us in a few months. But no.”
Instead, Vitale took an assist out of the car. He ambled past what was left of a charcuterie board as he passed through the lobby. A fan called his name, but Vitale didn’t hear him. He traded a cane for an arm to hold as he journeyed toward the sports icons and VIPs waiting.
When Vitale finally got past the black ropes and to the organizers who have helped him raise $105 million through the V Foundation over the previous two decades, the voice of college basketball came to life with one short charge to the team:
“Let’s have a great night.”
Although Vitale’s health was never the focal point of Friday’s festivities, it lingered in the evening like one of the A-list sports names during cocktail hour.
“He needs us to carry him in this room tonight,” ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi told a group before the ballroom doors opened.
They tried. One event organizer asked Vitale to slow down as he walked from the lobby to a news conference. He didn’t.
Someone grabbed Vitale a chair so he could sit during a series of photos with the night’s honorees … until he realized it was blocking a member of his All-Courageous Team, 8-year-old Tony McLaurin. Vitale stood up and put both hands on the leukemia survivor’s shoulders.
Dick Vitale was surrounded by supporters at his annual gala Friday, including college basketball coaches Tom Izzo, Kelvin Sampson and Geno Auriemma. (Matt Baker / The Athletic)
Negandhi admittedly filibustered a news conference so Vitale would have less time to speak and more strength for later. That, to the surprise of no one who has heard Vitale in his 46 years on ESPN, didn’t work.
Vitale took his time in front of the microphone, citing the treatment stats of the kids and young adults in the first two rows with the same ease as he recited the resumes of gala honorees Tom Izzo or Kelvin Sampson. Josh Fisher’s 1,200 rounds of chemotherapy. Tatum Parker outlasting bone cancer to become a grade-school teacher.
Emily Ayers listened from the front row. Nine years ago, she was sick in a bathroom from another round of chemotherapy when her parents showed her Jim Valvano’s famous speech: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
She didn’t.
Now 17, healthy and long free of acute myeloid leukemia, Ayers wrote “Mr. Vitale” a message two weeks ago. She wanted him to know the lessons and love she received from Vitale and the V Foundation go both ways.
Today this message from one of my All Courageous youngster Emily Ayers – moved me to tears:
Hi Mr. Vitale! I can’t even begin to explain what you mean to me, us kids, and soo many people!! Thank you for all that you do for cancer research to help kids like me! I know you have…
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 20, 2026
“There’s always positives out of it,” Ayers said. “Like, us kids can now turn it around and support him after he supported us for so many years and continues to do that. I just think it truly shows his heart when he’s fighting and he still tries to help us kids.”
Some of the help is financial; Vitale set the night’s reach goal at $14 million. But don’t discount pure hope.
“It’s weird,” said Hannah Macdonald, 13 years old and one year removed from her last chemo treatment for brain cancer. “You think, like, ‘Oh, you’re nobody, and nobody’s going to care about you.’ And then all these people show up for you.”
More than 700 of them did Friday night, with Vitale in the center of it all.
Just as Vitale is and always will be a defining part of the story of college basketball, the gala is and always will be a defining part of the legacy of Vitale. He never leaves home without flyers for the event. He posts about it on social media and promotes it on broadcasts. Listen to him for five minutes in a news conference or 30 seconds on the phone, and his passion for the cause is undeniably genuine.
“This,” Negandhi said, “is his Final Four.”
Tipoff was just after 7, with a video tribute to Vitale as celebrities streamed in: Arkansas’ John Calipari, Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, broadcaster Katie Couric, wrestling star Titus O’Neil. Auction paddles waved between speeches and presentations and surf and turf dinners. Donations flowed.
Tears did, too. On stage, Mariano Jimenez Jr. remembered how excited his daughter, Aubrien, was to connect with the V Foundation and, eventually, join Vitale’s All-Courageous Team.
“That gave her so much hope to fight,” Jimenez said.
Aubrien died from esthesioneuroblastoma in 2022 before it could happen. She was 15. The V Foundation awarded a grant in her memory Friday night.
A few minutes later, it was Vitale’s turn to speak. He held the stage for 12 minutes, pleading for pediatric cancer research funds so the future looks better than the present. He thanked the children that, after all these years, are now supporting him.
“I see them, and I cheer up,” Vitale said. “The messages they’ve shared in my battle are unbelievable.”
So, too, was Friday’s end result: $21 million, smashing Vitale’s expectations and spiking the gala’s all-time total to $126 million.
A smashing record breaking night as we raised tonight an incredible amount of 21 million which now gives us a total since starting the gala. We have now raised 126 million dollars for pediatric cancer research through @TheVFoundation @ESPNPR pic.twitter.com/coVT4XLyUO
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) May 2, 2026
With his Final Four over, Vitale’s battle will continue this week. He’s readying himself for the next round of immunotherapy and whatever challenges get him back with his All-Courageous Team at their next great night together: the 22nd Dick Vitale Gala, set for May 7, 2027.
“I hope and pray it works,” Vitale said, “because I need it to work — badly — if I want to be able to be here next year again.
“And I do.”