Mercer, Oct 20 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Dick Vitale is still energetic at 70.“I act about 12. I hope that never changes,” he said.

He talked about everything a man who started his career, from teaching the sixth grade to the NBA to headline broadcaster could cover, all relating to work ethic, honesty, passion, drive and humanity, and with a humorous touch.

He recounted how he was frustrated after he got fired as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons when he got a call from a guy helping to start up this new cable sports network, which was called ESPN.

“ESPN?” Vitale said of the call from network co-founder Scott Connal. “I thought it was a disease.”

He said people wondered if he was telling the truth about his new job because nobody ever saw him on TV. “Nobody,” he said, “had cable.”

In the entertaining session, he ran the whole range of emotions from serious to passionate to funny to sentimental to disgusted to grateful.

“The adjectives I was getting before the game were scary,” Vitale said. “Four or five minutes into the game … I turned to Walton, I said, ‘Bill, I came here and I wondered if this kid was half as good as they said. This is a rarity, man. This kid is better than advertised.”

Dick Vitale is a well-known humanitarian who shares his time, money and efforts with the needy and the under-privileged. Just last month, he helped to pay for the funeral of a high school cheerleader who was shot and killed after a football game near his home of Sarasota.