In a scene straight out of Hoosiers, R. John Buuck lobbed basketballs at a tomato basket hoop he fastened to the wall of a barn located on his family’s farm just outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana. As a child of the 1940s, Buuck found creative ways to develop his athletic skills in the small town of Woodburn, roughly 500 people strong at the time. Buuck mainly devoted his athletic pursuits to basketball and baseball before eventually dipping his toes into football, tennis and track and field.
The opportunity to compete in college athletics steered Buuck away from his initial plan to remain in Indiana and attend Ball State University. Unplanned changes of direction became a theme for Buuck, who wound up testing his abilities in every sport that Concordia Teachers College had to offer its male students.
“At the last minute, I decided to play tennis (as a senior at Concordia),” Buuck explained. “I ended up playing three spring sports, but I didn’t play any of them during the same season. It was just circumstances. I thought I would only play basketball and baseball. I had no idea what college sports were like. It was a strange thing that I participated in all five sports they had during that era. I enjoyed having that opportunity. Obviously, today you couldn’t do that. It was a different world in those days.”
From a statistical standpoint, the Indianan made his biggest impact on the basketball court, rising to stardom as one of the top players in the Nebraska College Conference while being named a Converse Basketball All-Star as a senior in 1958. “Hustling John Buuck,” as the Omaha World-Herald referred to him as in February 1958, lettered in basketball, baseball, tennis and track and field during his time as a Bulldog. He went up against Nebraska state icons Bob Gibson and Tom Osborne while laying the foundation for a career that would lead to him becoming university president at Concordia University Wisconsin.
In recognition of the totality of his achievements, Rev. Dr. Buuck was named to the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2026 with a public announcement on July 21. The recognition provides an opportunity to reminisce. On a late July morning, Buuck recounts specific details from his college career, like the time he first asked his future wife Lyla on a date, the time he got a base hit off the legendary Bob Gibson and the time he poured in 34 points against Kearney State.
Says Buuck of his inclusion in the Hall of Fame, “I’m 90 years old, so it’s been a long time. I was surprised after all these years that someone was around to remember what activities I was involved in. I was very surprised and of course honored by the whole thing.”
In terms of his ultimate college decision, the seed was planted just as Buuck was preparing to begin classes at Ball State. Buuck’s older sister met Richard Walther, the man she married in the mid-1950s, at Concordia Teachers College. At the wedding, Richard’s younger brother John told Buuck he should consider playing football for the Bulldogs, who were coached by Herb Meyer. John Walther had just graduated from Concordia High School in Seward and was gearing up to play football himself.
In response, Buuck sent in an application and checked off football as one of his interests. Coach Meyer wrote back, and that was about the extent of the courtship. Once on campus, Buuck kept catching the attention of coaches and fellow classmates with his well-rounded athletic abilities. Upon Buuck finishing first in the football team’s one-mile run, Herb Meyer prodded at Buuck to give track a try.
Buuck obliged. He played basketball all four years, but he cycled through spring sport offerings, transitioning from track to baseball as a junior and tennis as a senior. Lou Schwich served as Buuck’s coach for both basketball and baseball. (The opportunity in tennis came about after a Bulldog player of the time convinced Buuck to go out for the team).
It was 1957 when Buuck produced a hit off Gibson, a feat some of his Bulldog teammates also achieved in those ’57 and ’58 matchups with the future National Baseball Hall of Famer. Says Buuck of stepping in against Gibson, “He threw harder than any other pitcher we faced. He was still a little wild in those days. You didn’t know if he was going to throw it across the plate or if you were going to get plunked in the rib. I can remember standing at the plate so clearly and seeing that fastball come in. I was fortunate enough to hit it back through the box.”
On the hardwood, Buuck, who wore No. 12, showed he could compete alongside the best players in the state, such Leroy Sprague of Kearney, Jim Hampton of Chadron, Ron Witt of Peru and, of course, Tom Osborne of Hastings. Buuck and those four players made up the five-player All-Nebraska College Conference basketball team for the 1957-58 campaign. That season, Buuck ranked second in the conference in scoring (295 points) and averaged 24.6 points per game over his final 12 games.
Not only did Buuck drop in 34 points against Kearney, he also notched 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting in a win over Midland as part of his sterling senior season. The outbursts prompted an Omaha World-Herald headline that read, “Husting John Buuck New Concordia Star.” As the article detailed, “Coach Luther Schwich says Buuck’s progress is a lesson in desire and hustle.” The World-Hearld also mentioned that Buuck spent two years on the team’s B squad before earning a starting position as a junior and senior. The 1958 Concordia yearbook included short anecdotes and wrote of Buuck (who studied biological science as part of his educational track), “Basketball is his specialty – those drive-in shots.”
Yes, Buuck has saved some of these clippings. He remembers the 34-point game and how an underdog Bulldog team missing two starters pushed Kearney State to the limit. Back in those days, Buuck and CTC played their home basketball games in the old gymnasium that used to stand at the current location of the Thom Leadership Education Center. It was right in front of Founder’s Hall where Buuck asked his wife for that first date. Well into the future, in 2019, Buuck served as Concordia Nebraska’s commencement speaker inside the sparkling Walz Human Performance Complex (completed in 2010).
Not surprisingly, Buuck holds connections throughout Concordia circles. His presidency at Concordia Wisconsin ran from 1979 through 1996. In addition to expanding the school’s academic offerings, Buuck played a central role in relocating the school from the downtown Milwaukee area to a 125-acre property along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Mequon. For his service, Concordia Wisconsin named its gymnasium the R. John Buuck Field House in 1999.
Says Buuck, “When you’re born and raised on a farm and you’re bailing hay on a hot day in July, you never dream about being a president. At the time I enrolled at Concordia Teachers College, the only program they had was elementary education. I went there with the idea of being an elementary Lutheran teacher. I came from a high school of only about 100 students, and very few of them went to college. Most of them worked on the farm or went to Fort Wayne to work in a factory or an office. I didn’t know what college was about. I didn’t even know if I’d be successful getting through college.”
A surprising call to the high school level at Concordia High School in Portland, Oregon, set Buuck’s career path in motion. He described the placement as a “shock.” He taught biology and chemistry and coached baseball and basketball. Six years later, he took on an administrative position as academic dean of students at Concordia College in Portland. Buuck’s role in helping Concordia Portland become a four-year college made him an attractive candidate for the president position at Concordia Wisconsin.
During Buuck’s time as president, Bulldog alum Courtney Meyer became football coach and even coached one of John Buuck’s sons, Tom. All three of Buuck’s sons were inducted into Concordia Wisconsin’s Hall of Fame. Also noteworthy, current Concordia Nebraska president Bernard Bull was a student at CUW during Buuck’s presidential tenure.
When Buuck tells of additional special memories at the Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony, he expects to be accompanied by all four children (barring unforeseen circumstances), David, Steven, Thomas and Cheryl, and by many of his grandchildren. John’s wife Lyla, a North Platte, Nebraska, native, was called to be with the Lord in 2024.
Across 90 years of life, Buuck has accumulated more stories than the allotted time would allow. Said Buuck in reflection, “It was not the pathway I thought I would travel. God had His own pathway in many situations, including in something as minor as sports. I ended up playing all five sports and becoming a president. That was never on my radar screen. I’ve been blessed so richly in so many ways.”
It started with a humble tomato basket and the willingness to take on an array of opportunities and capitalize on them as they arose.
