University of Detroit Mercy Athletics

He was one of the most successful and popular Titan coaches coaching the Titans to a 78-30 (.772) overall record during his four year tenure leading Detroit (1973-1977). His total wins rank third all time in school history for a coach. He had a school record 25 wins against only four losses in 1977 and took the 1977 team to the NCAA Tournament, and advanced to the second round. He coached the Titans to a 21-game winning streak during the 1976-77 season when the team participated in the NCAA Tournament. Included in the streak was a victory in Milwaukee over the eventual national champion Marquette. A great promoter of Titan basketball, he recruited Titan greats John Long, Terry Tyler, Terry Duerod. In April 1977, Vitale was named the Athletic Director at Detroit. He went on to be the coach of the Detroit Pistons and then a sportscaster with ABC-TV and ESPN. He called ESPN’s first-ever NCAA basketball game featuring Wisconsin at DePaul (12/5/79) and has since called over a thousand NCAA games and also NBA games during the 1983 and ’84 seasons. Vitale has a segment on ESPN SportsCenter entitled “Dick Vitale’s Fast Break” which airs during the college basketball season. His “Vitale-isms” such as “Awesome, Baby!” and “Get a TO, Baby!” to name a few have become popular throughout college basketball. He is also a member of the 2008 class inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame and in September 2008 he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.