The typically unflappable Joe Buck was tense ahead of game one of the 1996 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees at the original Yankee Stadium. 

At just 27 years old, Buck was about to become the youngest broadcaster to ever call a World Series on television and the first to do so for Fox, which only began broadcasting sports two years prior. 

“That was my first real test as a national broadcaster,” Buck said. “Those are the moments where you either sink or swim.” 

With nine future Hall of Fame players on the field and millions watching at home, Buck remembered what his father, legendary sportscaster Jack Buck, told him before calling a Minor League Baseball game in Louisville, Kentucky.

“If you get hit by a bus going into the ballpark, they’re still going to play the game, and somebody else will sit down and announce it,” Buck recalled his father saying. “You’re not the important piece. You’re lucky to sit there and just enjoy yourself.”

Since then, Buck has called an unprecedented 23 World Series on television, six Super Bowls and countless other iconic moments, including the “Minneapolis Miracle” in the divisional round of the 2017 NFL playoffs, which he said maybe his favorite. He’s now the play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s Monday Night Football alongside Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman. 

But last Monday, the man who’s used to accentuating the action in front of millions spoke in front of a few hundred UT students at the Frank Deford Lecture in Sports Journalism at the Moody College of Communication. 

“I like talking to younger people, and I like giving my insight into a business that I’ve been around literally my whole life,” Buck said. “Whether it’s through my dad or personally, and trying to give any help I can to anybody who wants to get into the business.” 

Buck, a self-described “nepo-baby,” recalled learning the tools of the trade while sitting two seats down from his father in the Busch Memorial Stadium press box in St. Louis, where the elder Buck called games for over half a century. 

When Jack was assigned national broadcasts, he would occasionally bring young Joe with him, who would ask network executives what traits they looked for in a young sportscaster. Regardless of the network, the answer was nearly identical: great play-by-play commentary extends far beyond the press box.

“Don’t get too hell-bent on only focusing on what you want to do for a living,” Buck said. “Learn about the world around you, learn about politics, learn about law, learn about whatever it is, and be able to apply that to what you do on TV or on the radio.”

Buck emphasized that success in sports broadcasting isn’t just about knowing statistics — it’s about being well-rounded enough to distinguish oneself from their peers. 

“Be a little bit more varied and diverse than just somebody who can give everybody’s batting average from 2008,” he continued. “And I took that to heart. I tried to read as much as I could. I continue to this day. I try to improve my vocabulary.”

While he loves calling games, Buck said his true calling is being a good father to his two adult daughters and 6-year-old twin boys despite his busy travel schedule. While they were growing up, Buck said he used to take his daughters on work trips across the country just as his dad did. 

“My boys know that for their mom and dad, both people who are in this business, that they’re the number one priority,” Buck said. “We’re lucky that we can fit my schedule around being a parent. Not everybody’s lucky, I realize that. The number one job I have is to try to launch well-adjusted kids into society, and I don’t take that lightly.” 

Buck far from monopolized the scheduled time of 90 minutes on Monday, taking a wide variety of questions from students for nearly an hour, and never shying away from cracking a joke at an audience member’s expense or his own. 

While there was plenty of self-deprecation, Buck repeatedly underscored the need for self-confidence and the mitigation of imposter syndrome in such a unique and competitive industry. 

“Everybody’s got that voice inside their head telling you you’re not good enough,” Buck said on Monday. “In my case, it wasn’t only you’re not good enough, it was you’re only doing this because you’re somebody’s kid. … You’re gonna be found out as a fraud. That’s the voice you have to murder inside your head and trick yourself into believing that you’re good enough to do whatever it is you’re there to do.”