Joe Buck has been in this business for a long time. There have been many more ups than downs in his sports media career. He’s called Super Bowls and World Series. He recently called seven games in seven days, traveling the country to call the World Series and NFL games. Buck has also had some embarrassing moments, including one that still haunts him. It was in April of 1991 when he “sounded like Peter Brady.”

Joe Buck made history in 1994

Joe Buck had broadcasting experience before he even stepped into the booth. Buck grew up watching his late father, Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Jack Buck, call games for the St. Louis Cardinals. It didn’t take long for the younger Buck to follow suit.

In 1994, Joe Buck was hired by Fox. Buck became the youngest man to ever announce a full slate of NFL games on network TV. He was 25 years old. He’s been calling games ever since. By 1996, Buck was named the network’s lead play-by-play voice for its Major League Baseball coverage.

In 2002, Buck became Fox’s top play-by-play man for its NFL coverage. He replaced the legendary Pat Summerall. Buck joins Curt Gowdy and Al Michaels are the only announcers to handle a network’s lead coverage of MLB and NFL games in the same year.

Buck has quite the resume

At 51, Joe Buck is still going strong. He teams with Troy Aikman as Fox’s No. 1 tandem during the NFL season. Buck has compiled a long list of awards over his 25-plus years in the business. He’s a seven-time Sports Emmy Award winner and he’s been named National Sportscaster of the Year on three different occasions.

Perhaps his most meaningful award happened in September of 2020. During halftime of the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Cleveland Browns game, Buck was told he was the latest recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. With the honor, he joined his father, Jack, as a recipient and the two became the only father-son combination to receive the honor.

Buck was speechless as he was given the award on live television. He did manage to get out a few words. “Oh, my god. I don’t even know what to say,” Buck said during the broadcast. “That’s unbelievable.”

Buck cringes at the time he ‘sounded like Peter Brady’

During the early days of his career, Joe Buck had a moment that still haunts him. In an interview with Graham Bensinger, Buck talked about how he wanted to sound older than the 21-year-old he was when he was calling St. Louis Cardinals games. He consciously tried to make himself sound like he had a deeper voice.

“Everytime I opened my mouth, I consciously thought of ‘sound older than you are,'” Buck said. “I don’t know if I ever really thought of it that way, but that’s what I was doing. There are times, when in sheer excitement – there’s a call I made of a Ray Lankford play at the plate (in 1991) when he knocked over Darren Daulton when I sounded like Peter Brady in the throes of puberty.

“I just lost it. My voice cracked. It’s an exciting call, but it’s embarrassing, too. That was one where my dad said, ‘sit down.’ I think it was the 12th inning and it really wasn’t my turn. They won the game and I was like, thanks dad. Now I’ve been exposed as the 12-year-old that I am.”