Tennessee Volunteers Basketball Players Use NIL Money to Donate to V Foundation
ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale, one of the pioneers in the industry, has pioneered fund-raising for cancer research for decades as part of the V Foundation, founded in memory of the late Jim Valvano.
Vitale has waged his own public battle with the disease. He has gone through treatment for four different types of cancers, treatment that has impacted his throat and kept him away from the microphone for long stretches of time.
Recently, Vitale returned to the microphone and has called a select number of games in the past few weeks. He was most recently on the call for the Tennessee-Alabama game, a matchup of Top 10 teams in the SEC.
Leading up to the game, announcers typically get time with each head coach and selected players to talk about the game. It’s part of the research every announcer does leading up to the call.
During Vitale’s production meeting with Tennessee and Volunteers coach Rick Barnes, he was presented with an unexpected gift — a $10,000 donation to the V Foundation.
But it didn’t come out of Barnes’ pocket. His players dipped into their NIL money to combine to make the donation.
Barnes and Vitale exchanged a hug and Barnes notified him of the donation, with Tennessee’s social media team there to capture the donation.
There are plenty of examples of student-athletes using their NIL money to donate to charities or give back to the community. Tennessee’s act of generosity is just the latest.
Vitale, who lost his close friend, fellow coach and ESPN analyst, Valvano, to cancer in 1993, was first diagnosed with a melanoma in August of 2021. Two months later, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Two months after that, he was then diagnosed with pre-cancerous dysplasia and ulcerous lesions on his vocal cords.
That treatment required Vitale to shut down his broadcast career, as the treatment left him unable to talk for several months.
In August of 2022, Vitale announced that he was declared cancer free and briefly returned to broadcast duties. But in July of 2023 his cancer returned. He was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, which required radiation treatment. In December of that year, he was declared cancer-free, only to receive a diagnosis of lymph node cancer in June of last year.
He was declared cancer-free for the third time in December.
