Vic Lombardi’s Next Round

Words by Jim Bebbington | Photos by Christian Marcy-Vega

Vic Lombardi, the voice of Denver sports for nearly a generation, is ready to get back into the ring for the fight of his life.

Lombardi is Denver sports talk. For many years, he was one of the region’s leading TV sports anchors, anchoring the CBS4 sports coverage and racking up 32 Emmy awards. Then in 2016, he moved to radio and digital, providing pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage of Nuggets broadcasts while also being live on the morning radio from 7 to 10 a.m. on Altitude Sports Radio’s 92.5 morning show.

A native Denverite and a member at The Club at Rolling Hills in Golden, he is also a frequent master of ceremonies at golf banquets and charity fundraisers throughout Colorado.

But while much of his sports talk and MC work will continue to be about the games people play, he is planning to resume a private mission to get more people to be aware of how to prevent, detect, and possibly recover from prostate cancer.

That is because he is a prostate cancer survivor himself. He was first diagnosed six years ago at the age of 49 and underwent surgery to reduce the size of his cancer. and after his diagnosis, Lombardi added his voice to the public awareness campaign about the disease.

This work has taken on renewed importance, Lombardi said recently while speaking on the deck of The Club at Rolling Hills on a warm winter afternoon. That’s because a recent PSA Test he took found that his cancer has grown back and he is likely facing a renewed round of radiation treatments soon.

“I was young when I was diagnosed –  49,” he said. “I had surgery. It was very public. I made it public purposely because I wanted people to know I’ve since been very involved in prostate cancer awareness. I’m actively involved in the Jack Vickers prostate cancer charity golf tournament at Castle Pines, which has generated millions of dollars with the Solich brothers.”

His first experience speaking publicly about his cancer opened his eyes to how quietly pervasive the disease is.

“You won’t believe how many golfers my age and around my age have called me, have reached out to me, have consulted with me, have advice for me,” he said. “It is the most common cancer of guys our age. A lot of people want to keep it silent. But I found a brotherhood, not just in golf, but in prostate cancer.”

The fact that his cancer has returned is not a shock to him. When he had the surgery, he said he was told that they were unable to remove all of the tumor and that it would likely re-grow. Now that it has, Lombardi said he’s planning to tackle the problem again head-on.

“I like talking about it,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how if you walked into a golf clubhouse and just looked at everybody in the clubhouse, I guarantee you there are one or two men in there with prostate cancer. Some know about it, some don’t.”

On a recent morning in the studio of the morning show at 92.5 Lombardi bounced back and forth between decrying on-air the Nuggets latest loss to the Boston Celtics and describing off-air his most-recent battle with his insurance company that he’s waging to get a PET scan approved that will enable his doctor to focus his radiation treatments. With a steady diet of Nuggets, Broncos, Avalanche, and a little golf, Lombardi and his partners Mark Moser and Brett Kane have worked hard to compete for listeners in a sports-crazed town. The January Nielsen ratings found their sports station overall effectively tied for listeners with their cross-town competition, Bonneville International’s KKFN Denver Sports 104.3.

Lombardi said he expects to talk on-air shortly about his diagnosis for listeners. “I like to talk about it; it’s therapeutic,” he said.

Lombardi’s doctor through most of his treatment, Dr. E. David Crawford, was for many years the head of urologic oncology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. Twenty years ago, Crawford co-founded an annual fundraising tournament at Castle Pines Golf Club, which has raised more than $5 million for prostate cancer awareness. Crawford brought Lombardi on board to help lead the auctions and fundraising efforts of the two-day tournament.

Crawford said the progress against the disease in the last 20 years has been tremendous, mainly from better diagnostic tools that can more precisely determine who is at risk of the disease and where it is located in the body. “Jack Vickers got very interested (in the cause) because a number of his members and friends had been diagnosed,” Crawford said.

He said after Vickers died, Castle Pines’ new chairman, George Solich, doubled down on the fundraiser. “He said ‘Jack was right on and we’re going to keep doing it.’ Everything George does is 150 percent, so they continue to do it. John Elway

took over the tournament and it’s undoubtedly the largest golf fundraiser for prostate awareness in the country.” The disease and the golf community have long and, unfortunately, close connections. Arnold Palmer was diagnosed with it, although he died of other causes. Tiger Woods’ father Earl had it.

Crawford said Lombardi shares a lot of traits with other patients he’s seen successfully deal with prostate cancer, and he is grateful that he has used his platform to give information and hope to other men dealing with the disease.

“(He) has really cruised through it by being in good shape,” Crawford said. “Vic is out to help men know about this. By being the MC, talking about the disease, talking about all the stuff we have done, it’s been phenomenal for awareness and for fundraising.”

(Lombardi is also co-chair of the National Jewish Health Respiratory Hospital Night and Day Golf Tournament, which is in its fifth year raising money for the hospital.) Despite the cancer, Lombardi said he is enjoying his life and his latest career turn. He and his wife Terri have three grown children – one son and two daughters, Dante, Isabella and Alexis. He and his two brothers and a sister were raised in North Denver by their Italian-immigrant parents, and the boys go back to their parents’ home for home-cooked lunch at 1 p.m. every weekday to be with their mom and to check in on their father.

Lombardi even had a golf simulator installed in his parents’ house so he and his brothers can visit longer, playing after the espresso is drunk.

Lombardi is in demand. He played in the pro-am last summer for the BMW Championship. He is a regular at Rolling Hills, dropping in to play with any number of groups and friends. He and his on-air partners Moser and Kane get out when they can. And his son, Dante, picked up the game and they play occasionally, Lombardi said, even though their matches can get ‘hotly competitive.’

“My health isn’t all there, but I feel as youthful as I ever have,” he said. “My mind still thinks like a 20-year-old. My jokes, my humor, I’m sophomoric as always.” Within the medical community, they continue to research how much prostate cancer testing is appropriate. Since the disease can manifest itself in many different ways – it can exist but be essentially benign in some patients while it can spread and be lethal in others – the medical recommendations are full of caveats that men have clear and deep conversations with their medical providers about the disease and make the best choice for themselves.

For Lombardi, he considers his first screening test at age 49 a lifesaver. A friend of his discovered his prostate cancer too late, and he died after the cancer spread to other parts of his body.

“He passed away because when he found out it was already in his bones and at that point, you know you’re just you’re just chasing your tail,” he said. “Mine spread, but it was not to my bones yet. So that’s why I think awareness is key.”

And in the months and years ahead, he intends to keep that awareness as high as possible for his Colorado audience.