Joe Buck Biography

Joe Buck was born on 25 April 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida, to Jack Buck and Carole Lintzenich. His siblings include five sisters – Beverly, Christine, Julie, Betsy and Bonnie – and two brothers – Dan and Jack Buck Jr.

His father was the late sports broadcasting legend Jack Buck, whose career spanned six decade till his death in 2002. Due to his father’s career, Joe got to travel a lot while the former was broadcasting games for MLB and NFL.

Joe Buck grew up in St. Louis area where he joined St. Louis Country Day School. Later, he took admission in Indiana University Bloomington and graduated in 1991 with BA in English and minor in telecommunications.

While still an undergraduate, Joe Buck began his professional broadcasting career in 1989 by taking up the play-by-play announcer job for Louisville Redbirds, a minor-league affiliate of the Cardinals. The same year he also covered Triple-A All-Star Game for ESPN.

A couple of years later, in 1991, he worked as a reporter for KMOV – St Louis' CBS affiliated television station.

In 1991 again, he began broadcasting games for the St. Louis Cardinals on local television and radio —KMOX radio and KPLR-TV.

In 1992, he worked as a play-by-play announcer for University of Missouri basketball broadcasts.

He continued to call for St. Louis Cardinals till 2007 (later on KMOX and FSN Midwest television) when his increased workload at the Fox resulted him in not announcing the 2008 and onwards seasons.

Before this, his job at Fox Sports started in 1994. With this job, he became the youngest announcer to call a regular slate of National Football League (NFL) games on network television. He was 25 then and together with analyst Tim Green created FOX NFL’s six original broadcast teams.

A couple of years later, along with Tim McCarver, he took over the responsibility of announcing play-by-play for Major League Baseball (MLB).

The year 1996 also saw him accomplishing another feat – he became the youngest play-by-play announcer to broadcast baseball’s World Series as a network employee. He announced all nine innings and games.

Since then, he has served as a play-by-play announcer for World Series every year barring two years – 1997 and 1999.

Till 2020, Joe Buck has announced 21 All-Star Games, 13 American League Championship Series and 12 National League Championship Series for Fox MLB.

In 2002, he took over as the lead NFL play-by-play announcer for Fox. Initially, he partnered with analysts Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth (2002-04) who joined him as the colour commentator.

From 2005 onwards, he continued the partnership with Aikman (after Collinsworth joined NBC Sports) alone. The announcer pair is now the second longest-running broadcast team to call NFL games behind only to Pat Summerall and John Madden team.

The duo also broadcasted their first Superbowl in 2005. Later, the two came together to broadcast the Superbowls in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020.

In 2006, Joe Buck presented Fox's pregame NFL show,�Fox NFL Sunday,�and postgame show THE OT; however, owing to poor viewership, he did not get to host it the following year. This was the first time when any broadcaster managed the duties of both play by play announcer and host of a pregame show simultaneously.

In 2009, he presented three episodes of HBO’s sports-based talk show Joe Buck Live. It got cancelled after that.

In 2014, Joe Buck and Greg Norman teamed up to host United States Golf Association championship telecasts, primarily the U.S. Open tournament, for Fox. Later, he was joined by Paul Azinger instead of Norman and they continued broadcasting the game till the time Fox withdrew from its USGA deal in 2020.

Between 2015 and 2018, he presented the Audience Network’s sports talk show, Undeniable with Joe Buck, in which he interviewed eminent sports personalities to give audience an idea of their lives and career.

In 2016, his autobiography Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm Not Allowed to Say on TV was released. The book became a New York Times bestselling memoir.

Beginning September 2018, he joined game analyst Troy Aikman, reporters Erin Andrews and Kristina Pink as well as rules analyst Mike Pereira to do play-by-play for Thursday Night Football broadcast on Fox/NFL Network.

Joe Buck has worked in various television commercials promoting products and services like Budweiser beer, Holiday Inn hotels and National Car Rental Agency.

He is heavily criticised by fans for being biased when calling games. Fans think that he hates their team; however, Joe Buck believes that it is because they are more used to hearing local commentators than national broadcaster.

Fans also criticise him for a lack of emotion during crucial time of the game. However, as per others, Joe does a good job of stepping back and letting the game speak for itself.

Joe Buck has bagged the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-By–Play seven times (2000, 2002-2006 and 2012).

He has also been the recipient of National Sportscaster of the Year award four times – 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

In 2020, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced Joe Buck as the recipient of the year’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. His father, Jack Buck, received the same honour in 1996. This makes them the first father son duo to receive the honour.

In 1993, Joe Buck married Ann Archambault and together they have two children. The couple divorced in 2011.

In 2014, he tied knot with Michelle Beisner, a feature reporter at ESPN. The two were blessed with twin sons in 2018.

Since 2001, he has hosted one of the nation's top charity golf tournaments Joe Buck Classic which raises money for Joe Buck Imaging Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Joe Buck is also associated with other charitable organisations like the Parkinson’s Foundation, Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club and City of Hope.

He suffered from a vocal cord paralysis in 2011 because of the hair replacement treatment that he took.