Basketball Museum set to honor Dick Vitale, support for V Foundation

By Elan Kane

ESPN’s Dick Vitale poses with the Clemson Cheerleaders before the start of the NCAA college basketball game between Duke and Clemson Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. | AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain

The Basketball Museum of Illinois, currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign to construct the museum building, will have a Dick Vitale Day and donate 50 percent of proceeds to the V Foundation.

The museum, set to open in Pontiac in the near future, “will be a comprehensive facility dedicated to recognizing the rich tradition and history of basketball in the state of Illinois from the junior high level level to the development of the professional game,” according to the museum’s website.

The V Foundation, founded in 1993 by former basketball coach Jim Valvano together with ESPN, provides funding to cancer research institutions. Vitale, a longtime basketball broadcaster, became close with Valvano before he died in 1993 of cancer.

The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association is looking to raise $500,000 through its GoFundMe page.

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