Dick Vitale, it seems, has been around basketball forever. He was an assistant coach at Rutgers and then had a terrific run at the University of Detroit before he made the leap to the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
That didn’t work out too well as you may have heard him say from time to time (“I got the ziggy!”).
Then he got a call from something called ESPN and started broadcasting college basketball games.
At first, he was very straightlaced and emulated the greats. It wasn’t until later that Vitale let his personality emerge, and when he did, it changed things.