Dick Vitale, ESPN's lead college basketball analyst for nearly 30 years, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Vitale will receive the award June 30 at the kickoff luncheon of CoSIDA's annual workshop at the Tampa Waterside Marriott.

The Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award is presented based on an individual’s or organization’s longtime contributions to intercollegiate athletics and commitment to CoSIDA and its mission.

“Dick Vitale has been an advocate for everything that is good in college athletics, so it is with great joy that CoSIDA bestows upon him one of its most prestigious honors,” said CoSIDA President Charles Bloom.

Vitale said he was honored and “absolutely in awe” to be named. “This honor is so special due to the utmost respect I have for all the sports information directors across the country who are such valuable assets to intercollegiate athletics,” he said.

Vitale, who has been a face of ESPN's college basketball broadcast team since 1979, has served as a head coach on the scholastic, collegiate and professional levels. He called ESPN’s first NCAA basketball game -- Wisconsin at DePaul – on December 5, 1979 (a 90-77 DePaul win). Since then, he has called close to 1,000 games, including NBA contests for ESPN during the 1983 and 1984 seasons.

Vitale has been inducted into seven Halls of Fame for his service to basketball, and was the 1998 recipient of the Basketball Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award. In 2001, he received CoSIDA's Jake Wade Award which is presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics.

The award, which was established in 1998 when it was presented to Jackson, has been bestowed only five times before this year. Besides Jackson, who teamed with Vitale earlier in his career, GTE Corporation (1999), CBS announcer Dick Enberg (2001), ESPN’s Rosa Gatti (2003) and Jim Albright (2005), formerly of Eastman Kodak, have all received the honor.

For more information, see http://www.cosida.com/news/2008/3/14/0314080852_5378.aspx