Farewell, Bucky

Gary Bucklin's 30-year career as sports director at KSIB Radio in Creston comes to an end today. His final sportscast was heard from 11 a.m. to noon this morning.

“The old horse is leaving the barn,” Bucklin laughed Wednesday. “But, I take with me so many memories and have had such satisfaction working with coaches, athletic directors, athletes, parents and co-workers at KSIB over the years.”

Bucklin said Wednesday his love of announcing and connecting with people through the airwaves can be traced back to his childhood.

He received his first big “gig” announcing the fourth-grade talent show in his hometown of Bayard, and his first job was driving the streets of Bayard in a speaker car announcing the grand opening for a local gas station.

It didn’t take Bucklin long after that to realize he was a fit for radio. He received higher education at Career Academy in Milwaukee, Wis., and his first broadcasting job was at KOUR in Independence in 1966 where he worked for nearly a decade — leaving the station once to serve in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

In 1974, KOUR wanted to expand their play-by-play high school sports coverage. So, they placed an advertisement for a part-time sports broadcaster and 19-year-old Gary Rima inquired about the position.

“I had no business getting into the business,” Rima said Wednesday. “I had no training and no degree. When I inquired, they told me to send a spec tape to the station. I didn’t have one so I went to a JV football game that night, sat on the top bleachers and recorded play-by-play on a tape recorder.”

Rima remembers sitting at the dinner table later that night playing the recording for his father.

“I played about 5 minutes worth for him. I knew it was terrible, and Dad verified it was terrible. I sent the tape anyway,” Rima said.

And yeah, you guessed it.

Bucklin hired him.

“I owe a lot to Buck,” Rima said. “I don’t know what he saw or heard in me back then, but I’m thankful he believed in me back in 1974. It was a lucky break and I fell in love with radio pretty quick.”

Bucklin trained Rima for a full year — impressing on him the importance of being prepared, getting to games early for setup, being accurate with names, not embelishing, but still bringing excitement to the fans and painting a picture for the listeners.

Rima became sports director at KOUR in 1975 when Bucklin left the station to work in the retail sector. Rima has been in the radio business ever since and has become one of the best broadcast journalists in the state of Iowa coving University of Northern Iowa football and men’s basketball as the “Voice of the Panthers” for more than 20 years.

Creston job

Bucklin still had the “radio bug” in 1985 when an opportunity surfaced to become a sports broadcaster at KSIB Radio in Creston.

It’s here, in Creston, that Bucklin raised his family with his wife Joanne and built a successful career covering prep sports. Coaches say Bucklin has always put in the extra hours necessary over the past 30 years to recognize the athletes and coaches of southwest Iowa.

Nobody has valued Bucklin’s committment to that cause more than longtime Lenox football coach Allen Dukes and longtime Nodaway Valley athletic director Dave Huff.

Dukes first met Bucklin in 1997 when he arrived as football coach at Lenox and over the years he’s been impressed with the way Bucklin fairly covers all nine high schools in his coverage area.

“He’s from Creston,” Dukes said, “but that doesn’t matter when he comes to your community. If he’s in Lenox covering a game, he’s a Tiger. If he’s in Mount Ayr, he’s a Raider. It’s like that no matter what community he’s in.”

Dukes commented that Bucklin “doesn’t know a stranger” and when he arrives to a game he talks with the athletes on a first name basis. He added Bucklin has also made connections with community members over the years.

“He will come to Lenox for a football game and half the community will talk with him before he gets to the crow’s nest to settle in for the game,” Dukes said.

The extra time

Huff has had a similar experience with Bucklin. He said when Nodaway Valley won the boys state basketball championship in 2006, Bucklin not only covered every game on the tournament trail that year, but was right there with the rest of the community the Sunday after the championship to attend a reception for the players and coaches in the school’s gymnasium.

“He probably doesn’t know how much that meant to all of us at Nodaway Valley,” Huff said. “Here’s a guy based out of Creston coming to Greenfield on his day off to celebrate with us. He’s just a true professional, who has been willing for 30 years here to give his time and often extra time to make sure kids in our area get the recognition they deserve.”

Huff said after the reception, Bucklin gave each player an audio tape of his broadcast from their championship game against Fort Dodge St. Edmond.

“That wasn’t something he made public,” Huff said. “He just wanted them to have something from him, from the game. He’s always giving back to those kids. He has made a big impact in his time here and will be missed by a lot of people.”

It’s those moments according to Bill Henderson — who was Bucklin’s color man for more than 25 Lenox postseason football and baseball games over the years — that have made Bucklin one of the most beloved people in southwest Iowa.

“I was struck very early on at just how well received he was by the public everywhere we went and by a wide range of age groups,” Henderson said. “He’s a tremendous ambassador for Creston in the rural areas. He covers almost 10 schools and some times he’s the only person from Creston they have communication with regularly. He has an upbeat, positive attitude and people affiliate that with Creston. Not a lot of people understand, it could have been the other way.”

Henderson said, as one can imagine, his road trips with Bucklin were never dull and wanted to share at least one funny story.

“This is one that’s printable,” Henderson said.

Henderson said the two were driving to the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls for a Lenox state playoff football game scheduled for 10 a.m. They were on the interstate and Bucklin — who also has a passion for classic cars — began talking to Henderson about the advantages of sythentic oil and why it’s good for transmissions and increasing gas mileage.

“He was really giving me a sermon on this,” Henderson said Wednesday, “And, when he finally takes a breath, we determined that we’d driven way past the turnoff. Boy, he snapped up and broke his neck on both sides looking around. He didn’t say another word the rest of the trip after that because we were kind of under the gun to get there.”

Henderson said the two took the next exchange and Bucklin was “white-knuckled” on the wheel while taking backdoor country all the way to the Dome.

“We made it there just in time to call the game,” Henderson said.

Remembering Oly

Bucklin said he’s worked with several color guys over the years and had so many good times.

But, listeners often commented how much they liked the banter when he and the late Curt “Oly” Olsen — longtime athletic director at Creston High School — worked games together. Olson was Bucklin’s color man for Creston/O-M football games for about five years.

“He was always enamoured with the lineman,” Bucklin said. “He never watched the ball. He would say, ‘there are my guys up front creating all the holes for those prima-donna running backs.’ He was always watching the ballgame that I wasn’t watching. He would say so-and-so just made a good block. He wanted to give credit to those kids. We had some good years together and I miss him dearly.”

Thank yous

Bucklin said he wanted to thank Dave and Kathy Rieck for keeping KSIB local all these years. Kathy Rieck is also retiring this week after 33 years at the station. Bucklin also wanted to thank all the coaches who have have spent time talking with him over the years.

Bucklin has won several awards over the years with one of the most presigous being the Iowa High School Athletic Association  outstanding media award in 2003. He was also inducted into the Creston High School Hall of Fame as a “distinguished contributor” in 2014.

Moving forward, the 68-year-old Bucklin said he will be doing some play-by-play work for KSIB in the future and will be hosting a couple oldies/rock and roll shows this summer.

In parting Wednesday, Bucklin said while his career in broadcasting gave him great satisfaction, that the best moments were watching his daughter Angie competing on the last girls cross Creston country team to make it to state in 1992 and watching his son Brian playing baseball for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Taking over for Bucklin at KSIB will be the “new horse” Ryan Horvat, a 29-year-old from Chicago. Horvat will begin full-time work at KSIB in early June.