View of ESPN’s Dick Vitale at the world basketball championship final in 1998
Legendary basketball announcer Dick Vitale, who is battling cancer, was seen in an emotional state during a press conference at the University of Kentucky.
The 63-year-old was due to start broadcasting NCAA Division 1 basketball games again this season.
Vitale was suffering from testicular cancer in 2009 and returned to work with cancer in his lymph nodes in 2014.
He addressed the team by saying “I am a victor and I will triumph”.
It is an inspirational quote from Theodore Roosevelt and a similar motto is used for Kentucky, as well as other great universities including Michigan, Texas, Stanford and Duke.
Vitale, who is a global ambassador for the American Cancer Society, was then hugged by Coach John Calipari before he was given a standing ovation.
“We are here today as brothers because the truest ally is the brotherhood,” he said, before calling for more awareness of the disease.
“There is a race called ‘manpower’ when you are sick. There is no more great battle. But when we speak of my cancer, we speak of us. We are not rivals, we are sons. But we have cancer and we all have the courage to face the battle. Please unite today in one line, on my Twitter account, @DickieV,: ‘I am a victor and I will triumph.”
His cancer has since been ruled out.
Vitale, who has been synonymous with America’s sport since the 1950s, has a reputation as one of the most recognisable names in the history of US broadcasting.