For the Monday Night Football broadcast duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, bragging rights were on the line when Indiana faced UCLA on Saturday at Rose Bowl Stadium.
Of course by now you’re very familiar with how that game turned, a dominant 42-13 win by the Hoosiers, who moved to 3-0 under the direction of head coach Curt Cignetti.
Buck’s broadcasting career began in 1989, while he was a telecommunications undergraduate at Indiana University.
The son of legendary St. Louis Cardinals radio voice Jack Buck, Joe was hired before he graduated from IU. He went on to calling play-by-play for the Louisville Redbirds, a Cardinals minor-league team, and calling Cardinals games on KMOX TV and radio in 1991. Buck was a reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game.
Hired by Fox Sports in 1994 at the age of 25, to announce NFL games, Buck became the youngest person to call pro games. At age 27, he also gained the distinction of being the youngest play-by-play announcer to call a World Series.
Buck was awarded an honorary degree from IU in 2016.
Aikman was a quarterback for the Bruins in 1987 and 1988, posting a 20-4 two-year record as a starter including victories in the Aloha and Cotton Bowls. In 1988, while earning consensus All-American honors, Aikman won the Davey O’Brien award as the nation’s top quarterback and placed third in the Heisman Trophy balloting. He was also named UCLA’s offensive and team MVP. Troy established many school records including 24 touchdown passes in a season, 228 completions in a season and 32 completions in a game. He still ranks as the fourth highest rated passer in NCAA history.
Aikman was the first overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. During his NFL career, he has led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl Championships.
Buck and Aikman have playfully bantered back-and-forth about IU and UCLA in the past, but Buck was in the driver’s seat on Monday evening as Philadelphia faced Atlanta.
But a couple days after Indiana’s big win over the Bruins, Buck laid low on the broadcast.
As ESPN returned from a commercial break to start the fourth quarter, it was actually Aikman who seemed to open the door.
“I’m a little surprised that you haven’t bragged a little bit about your Hoosiers,” Aikman said
Buck broke into a bit off tune version Indiana’s fight song: “Indiana, oh Indiana,” Buck sang, even seeming to clap along.
“You guys got after us pretty good,” Aikman said.
“Pretty good,” Buck responded.
And then Buck warned Aikman others to stay away from the Hoosiers head coach.
“(Coach) Curt Cignetti. Keep your eyes off him, captain UCLA.”
Joe Buck is #NeverDaunted pic.twitter.com/xxEYr4V7Cv
— Ryan Cotter (@Rygi13) September 17, 2024
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