Buck reflects on time at IU, early career path

It has been 18 years since Fox Sports broadcaster and former IU student Joe Buck last stepped foot on the Bloomington campus.

But after touring the school Tuesday, he said not much has changed.

“I think it stayed the same to a large degree, and I love that,” Buck said. “I want it to be like a time capsule that I can come back, and it feels like it did when I was here. It has changed, but still feels like Indiana.”

Buck began his broadcasting career in the summer of 1989, while still an undergraduate majoring in telecommunications. That year he called play by play for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds, before eventually landing the job as broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals.

But despite his great passion for broadcasting early in life, Buck did not work for any journalism organization at IU.

“For the Redbirds I was the radio voice, the traveling secretary and was doing a lot of things at a young age,” Buck said. “When I came back here for school, I just wanted to be a student. I didn’t want to have a job at the radio station, television station or newspaper. I just wanted to be a kid.”

Since leaving IU, Buck has developed into one of the top broadcasters in sports. After just a few years in the business, he became the youngest play-by-play announcer to call a slate of NFL games on network television.

He is currently the lead play-by-play announcer for Fox’s NFL coverage.

In addition to his work with professional football, Buck is the lead broadcaster for Fox MLB games. He set another milestone at age 27 when he became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game since 1953.

Junior Dave Leno, journalism student and broadcaster for the IU Athletics Department, said Buck has been a major inspiration.

“Joe Buck is as smooth as they come,” Leno said. “He is unquestionably one of the top sports broadcasters not only in the nation, but in the world. As an aspiring broadcaster like myself, I really look up to him and try to emulate his style.”

On Tuesday night in front of a capacity crowd at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Buck spoke about his time at IU and his career in the broadcasting industry.

IU School of Journalism Dean of Students Brad Hamm said it is an honor to have such a distinguished broadcaster and former student on campus.

“It’s a nice opportunity for him to come back and see Bloomington,” Hamm said. “I met with him in St. Louis in the spring, and he had talked about wanting to come back to campus and walk around. You can relate to people who have been in the place you have been in, so it makes it especially nice for an IU person to return and speak.”

Buck said on Tuesday he toured the campus and walked around the athletic facilities. He mentioned that while Assembly Hall looks the same, the new addition to Memorial Stadium is “incredible.”

When asked about his most memorable moment at IU, Buck, who was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, said he could not pinpoint only one.

“If I answer anything that were really some of my best memories, I would probably get arrested,” Buck said. “But when I felt this was really my place, it was probably my most fond memory. The fraternity stuff is great, but being part of the community here and feeling that this was my school is something that I won’t ever forget.”