Get well, Dick Vitale.

Dick Vitale, college basketball's voice for many decades recently underwent surgery for some legions on his left vocal chord.

Love him, or hate him, you can't deny what enthusiasm and even early recruiting information he brought to college basketball and America over many decades. Yes, with Scout.com, Rivals.com, and other sites, his recruiting information has become obselete. But he's still college basketball(and Duke's) best cheerleader. As a lifelong UNC fan, I know as well as any of Dick's love affair with Duke and coach K, but I have been able to overlook that because of his outside of college basketball work.

Most importantly(to me at least) has been his tireless work and preaching of cancer research. Cancer has gotten it's wicked hands on someone very close to me, and Dick Vitale's constant vocalization of giving to Jimmy V's cancer fund has been a welcome basketball diversion to me. I realize some get annoyed with his constant mentions of the Jimmy V fund, as they view college basketball as a diversion from life's troubles, and I can't disagree there. However, there's no better stage to occasionally bring up the donations to help humanity more than any college basketball game ever could.

Thank you Dickie V for what you have done for college basketball in the past, and what you are doing for cancer research presently. You have my prayers and well wishes for a full recovery.
Dickie's letter to his fans, http://espn.go.com/dickvitale/071218lettertofans.html

To donate to the Jimmy V cancer research fund, https://www.jimmyv.org/donate/donations/