by Tony the Tiger Hayes

It won’t be awesome baby, it won’t be showtime, ESPN’s Prime Time Player (PTP) Dick Vitale won’t be calling the UNC vs. Duke game in Durham and it snaps a streak that started since 1979. Not calling the traditional match up between the two schools had been as traditional as counting on Thanksgiving and Christmas each year and the diaper dandy of the event Vitale won’t be there to call the game amongst the disappointment of thousands of fans in Durham and the millions watching around the nation.

Vitale who was a staple on ESPN for calling UNC-Duke games for 36 years had his plug pulled for what ESPN now considers their top tier announcing crew and play by play man Dan Shulman and color announcer Jay Bilas, Bilas formerly played with Duke. Vitale had worked with Shulman and Bilas on previous broadcasts and the students and fans were looking forward to seeing Dickie V make the rounds at UNC.

Vitale has been less visible since Bilas has been doing the color and calling games more games without Vitale. Bilas took over a larger role without Vitale in the three man booth this 2014-15 season. Bilas has been working the NCAA prime time broadcasts in Vitale’s place. Vitale has been on less high profile telecasts and working mid afternoons Saturday games. Some of those games have had high ratings while others haven’t.

Vitale has a contract he signed in October that runs with ESPN through 2017 so those fans who wanted to listen to him on the telecasts can find him on the network but not on the high profile shows now being broadcasted only by Bilas and Shulman. The UNC-Duke rivalry broadcasts were a brand that started with Vitale behind the mic in 1979 and no one thought that would change anytime soon at least this season but it comes to an end.

Vitale tweeted to his core of fans “Yes 35 straight years/it was fun/I will miss it but ESPN has been great to me/No Hall of Fame without ESPN”
that was a classy statement with the end of this traditional match up for Dickie V. The game is slated for this Wed Feb 18th at Durham NC.

Tony the Tiger Hayes is a talk show host on Sportstalk on http://www.sportrsradioservice.com