Joe Buck joins his father in Cooperstown by winning broadcasting’s top award

Joe Buck had the perfect mentor for an award-winning broadcasting career – his father.

But it was Buck’s talent and hard work that ultimately put him on the path to Cooperstown.

Buck became the 50th winner of the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters on Dec. 10, joining his dad – 1987 Frick Award winner Jack Buck – as the only father/son winners of the award. At 56, Joe Buck becomes the second-youngest winner in the history of the award.

“I’m blown away,” Buck said after learning he had won the award. “I got a call with the area code from Cooperstown and my heart felt like it stopped. I am shocked. I didn’t think this was coming right now.

“I did not expect this at all. It does feel like it dropped out of the sky. To get it here in 2025 for 2026 is stunning, shocking and wonderful. I can’t be more appreciative of getting this award.”

Buck will be honored at the July 25 Awards Presentation in Cooperstown as part of Induction Weekend 2026.

Born April 25, 1969, Buck grew up in St. Louis as his father called Cardinals games on KMOX radio. He matriculated at Indiana University, and by 1989 was calling games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds. In 1991, Buck joined his father on Cardinals broadcasts and remained with the team through 2007.

“My best memory of my father as a Major League Baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award, to see the joy and pride that he had for what he had done,” Buck said. “He was a Depression-era kid and somebody who had nothing as a young man.

“I come in, obviously, in a very different situation. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. It’s hard for me…to accept this kind of stuff because I tend to downplay awards because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career – and I did. But I am happy that when I was a kid, I paid attention. I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him.”

In 1994, Buck joined FOX Sports as an NFL play-by-play announcer and soon added baseball to his national resume. In 1996, just five years after his father was behind the mic for CBS at World Series, Buck called his first World Series at age 27, becoming the youngest World Series voice since 25-year-old Vin Scully – the only younger Frick Award winner in history – in 1953. Buck would return to the World Series in 1998 and then each year from 2000 through 2021.

From 1996 through 2021, when he left FOX, Buck called 26 League Championship Series and 21 All-Star Games while voicing the network’s Saturday game of the week.

Working with partners at FOX that included 2012 Frick Award winner Tim McCarver and Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, Buck set a record (with McCarver) for most All-Star Games as a broadcast duo with 15 Midsummer Classics.

“I owe so much of this to my dad, and I owe as much to Tim McCarver,” said Buck, referring to his longtime partner and 2012 Frick Award winner. “That’s the last time I was (in Cooperstown), when Tim McCarver (was honored). I was as proud of him as I was of my dad because I knew what it meant to Tim.”

Buck’s career has featured legendary moments like Mark McGwire’s record-breaking 62nd home run in 1998 and David Freese’s walk-off home run in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.

“We’ll see you tomorrow night,” Buck said as Freese rounded the bases, echoing his father’s call in Game 6 of the 1991 Fall Classic when Kirby Puckett hit a walk-off home run.

“I just wanted to be my dad. I saw the way he carried himself, I saw the way he treated people, I saw the way he went about work. He couldn’t wait to get down the ballpark. He loved working. He never said ‘no’. And he always wanted to go to work. I think he would be proud.”

In 2022, Buck joined ESPN to become the eighth play-by-play voice in Monday Night Football history. He transitioned to the new network with analyst Troy Aikman, continuing a partnership that began in 2002 on FOX and is the longest broadcasting tandem in NFL history.

“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first, because that’s what I was around the most,” Buck said. “I love the game. I’m a fan of the game.”

Buck returned to the baseball booth in 2025 to call ESPN’s Opening Day broadcast. He becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award along with his father Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.

“This is the greatest honor I could receive,” Buck said. “To know what (my father) would be thinking and feeling this day, that’s what makes it special.

“It would have my dad really, really proud. He would be in tears right now.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum