For a guy with trademark long-windedness, puffing out 80 birthday candles should be ... well ... a piece of cake. Yep, Dick Vitale ? most ebullient sports personality alive ? officially becomes an octogenarian Sunday, with no sign of slowing down.
"I am the youngest 80 in the world," Vitale said, a long-time resident of Lakewood Ranch outside Bradenton, Fla., in a text message earlier this week. "Will match my energy and enthusiasm with any 25-year-old." In honor of his eight decades on Earth, we offer eight Vitalian facts:
