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Message: [QUOTE="FfldCntyFan, post: 5223946, member: 71"] Many here won't be old enough to remember, but in the early 1980's when ESPN was still pretty new and college basketball (primarily Monday Night in the Bg East) was one of the first (outside of indoor soccer and Australian rules football) live sports programming they had, Vitale was on the broadcasts (he was recently fired by the Pistons). His energy and knowledge was tremendous and made it must watch TV. Around 1983 or 1984 he moved from the game broadcasts and slowly started to become a caricature of what he initially was. A few years later, when Jimmy Valvano (RIP) joined, their pregame, halftime and post game commentary was awesome, but sadly that only lasted a few years. For decades he has become difficult to listen to outside of small samples here and there but he does truly love the game and did a lot to grow fan interest beginning nearly 45 years ago. I wish him the best. [/QUOTE]