Copyright by Global Electronic
Telecommunications, publishers of IrishEyes.Com®
February 17, 2002
Vitale Bearer
Of Good News
By Joe Tybor
For The IrishEyes.Com NewsService
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (IE) -- Dick
Vitale was back on the Notre Dame campus to do a basketball game for the first
time in so many years that he’s unsure when it last was.
“All I know is, it was against UCLA when John MacLeod
was the coach,” said the ever-popular Vitale before tip-off on Sunday. That would
make his last hoops broadcast here sometime between Feb. 22, 1992 and Dec. 20, 1995.
Before the tip-off, Vitale told IrishEyes that he believes Notre Dame
will make the NCAA tournament, one of six Big East teams to qualify. Of course, that was
before the Irish went out and blew a seven-point lead before a sellout crowd and lost to
Syracuse 68-65.
“Notre Dame will make it unless they have a total collapse,”
Vitale said. “They still have to win a couple of games, but they will be in the Big
Dance.
“I think six teams will make the tournament from the Big east:
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Miami, Connecticut, Notre Dame and one team among the others
scrambling out of the Big East Tournament,” Vitale said.
“But I don’t feel there is a team out of the Big East that’s
good enough to cut the nets down,” he continued with IrishEyes. “There are some
who will make the Sweet 16, but I don’t think there’s a team from the conference
that will win the championship.”
Vitale loves this place. He comes back frequently for home football
games, and he is always a popular attraction.
In fact two cheerleaders, the leprechaun and the lead drum major for
the marching band ran up to him individually courtside, shaking hands and hugging him.
They told him they have been recipients of the Vitale Family Scholarship Fund, and thanked
him.
Both of Vitale’s daughters attended Notre Dame on tennis
scholarships. Vitale said they could have gone anywhere for their Masters, but both
returned to Notre Dame. Both of them are now married to ND alums and one has made Vitale a
beaming grandfather.
“I had to give back.,” Vitale told IrishEyes about the
endowment. “Nobody pressured me or anything like that, but this place was so good to
my daughters and the Vitale family, I wanted to give something back for their
scholarships.
The Vitale endowment gives several thousand dollars to students who
participate in a non-revenue generating activity, such as cheerleading or the band.
Vitale will also be the subject of a celebrity roast at the Joyce
Center the week before next season’s Michigan football game.
About 40 minutes before, Vitale asked Joe Tybor of IrishEyes what time tip-off was. When told, and,
realizing he had time, Vitale went over to the student section and mixed it up with them
and the pep band in grand, celebratory fashion.
Too bad, the game-winning coach he
interviewed after the game was not Mike Brey.
(Joe Tybor is the founder of
IrishEyes, the first Notre Dame web site.)