'Awesome, Baby!': ESPN's Vitale to speak at Palestra

As Connaissance's fall speaker, sports commentator Dick Vitale will speak and sign copies of his book He is world famous as a boisterous, feisty commentator who has never shied away from the spotlight -- and now Dick Vitale is "headed for Penn, baby," as he might say. Vitale will come to the Palestra on October 24 as Connaissance's annual fall speaker, according to Co-Director Rich Archer, a Wharton senior. Known as "Dickie V" to his legions of fans, Vitale runs commentary for college basketball games on ESPN and for other events on ABC Sports. Archer said he hopes to involve the men's and women's basketball teams in the event. "We want to turn it into a Penn Pride evening," Archer explained. The evening will also be a fund raiser for the Make-a-Wish foundation -- Vitale's favorite charity, Connaissance Co-Director Sean Steinmarc said. Steinmarc, a College junior, explained that the event will incorporate a raffle and a book signing. He added that Connaissance plans to buy numerous copies of Vitale's most recent book, Holding Court: Reflections on the Game I Love, directly from the publisher. The organization will sell them to students, who can then have the books autographed at the speech. "We're hoping to make it more than just a lecture," Steinmarc said. "We're trying to make it into an all-around extravaganza." An ESPN announcer since 1979, Vitale began his sports career coaching high school basketball in 1964. Though most famous for his work in front of the microphone, Vitale worked his way through the ranks of college basketball to lead the Rutgers University men's team to the NCAA Final Four in 1976. In 1978, he coached the Detroit Pistons for just more than one season. According to Archer, Vitale's strong connection to college basketball helped cement him as Connaissance's choice. "We're hoping he will talk a little about the Penn-Michigan game at the second round of the NCAA tournament," Archer said, referring to the December 1994 matchup that Vitale called for ESPN. Explaining that Vitale knows "quite a bit" about women's collegiate sports as well as men's, Archer said he hopes Vitale will speak about the future for women in sports. Connaissance chose Vitale at the end of last year from a field of 40 people, according to Archer. "We could bring in eight or 10 speakers that cost a lot less, but we choose to bring a bigger name speaker once a semester," he said. "For this fall, it came down to Spike Lee, Stephen King and Dick Vitale." Originally, Connaissance wanted King to speak on Halloween. However, Archer said King was "completely booked." Vitale, on the other hand, was available within Connaissance's desired time frame and was also a "very nice man [whose] agent was great -- we couldn't pass that up," Archer said. According to Steinmarc, the evening is still in the preliminary planning stages. Any member of the University community with questions, comments or suggestions for the evening can e-mail Connaissance at connlect@dolphin, Steinmarc said. In addition, an open meeting to discuss the events surrounding Vitale's speech will be held at 7 p.m. today in Annenberg room 109.

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