Following a legend

It didn’t take Ryan Horvat long to realize the legend of Gary Bucklin reaches far and wide.

Before he and his family moved to Creston 11 days ago, about to succeed Bucklin as KSIB sports director, the 29-year-old native of Joliet, Ill., was getting some dental work done in the Joliet office of Dr. Lance Guyer.

“You’re moving to Creston, Iowa?” Guyer asked Horvat. “My best friend lived in Creston, he was from there. His dad is the sports director there. You’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill!”

Guyer and Brian Bucklin were teammates on the University of Iowa baseball team. They were roommates in Iowa City.

During that dental appointment, Horvat got a preview of the magnitude of Gary Bucklin’s presence as the voice of Creston area sports for three decades. That was just confirmed on a visit to the Union County Courthouse this week.

“I went to get my license plates, and everybody there was saying the same thing,” Horvat said with a smile. “’You’ve got some big shoes to fill!’ I know that. All I can do is just try to do my best.”

Horvat grew up in the Chicago area, a graduate of athletic powerhouse Joliet Catholic High School. His wife, Amanda, is also from Joliet and a graduate of St. Ambrose University in Davenport. They are the parents of a son, Nathan, who turns 2 years old in September.

Amanda is working four days a week at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in the Jordan Creek Town Centre.

Ryan, meanwhile, is busy processing new information — the production system at KSIB, the coaches and players on teams from towns he wasn’t familiar with until a few days ago. It’s a whirlwind.

“I’m going into a lot of interviews blind,” he said. “I haven’t met a lot of the coaches yet, I haven’t seen their team play. Sometimes I don’t know anything except the score, so I’m not getting the show prep I’m used to. It’s a matter of getting a system down and getting to know everyone. I know that will improve over time. I’m also doing a lot of interviews over the phone instead of through a microphone, and I don’t like the sound quality. We’re working on that. Hopefully people can bear with me and we’ll get a good routine going.”

He had looked up to a family member who broadcasted the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Braves many years ago, and in the back of his mind Horvat always wanted to get his shot in the business.

Horvat’s route to his first full-time broadcasting job has taken several side trips. As a student at Western Illinois University, he planned on becoming an English teacher and high school coach.

“I kind of looked at broadcasting as kind of a dream,” he said, “something you did on the side to make a little bit of money. I wasn’t sure about making a career out of it.”

Those teaching opportunities didn’t develop as he hoped, and his part-time job at the largest Dick’s Sporting Goods store in the Chicago area morphed into a position as manager of the store.

“I was in my mid-20s, I had a good position there, but I was still thinking about broadcasting,” Horvat said. “I enrolled in the Illinois Center for Broadcasting. It’s a one-year program and you have to have an internship to graduate.”

That’s where Horvat, who had dabbled in some play-by-play for games in his younger days, got the break he needed.

“I got lucky. I started out as an intern for Steve Leventhal, he owns a company called SRN Broadcasting,” Horvat said. “I’d go out, collect audio for his website, InternetFM.com. He got me credentials for the (Chicago) Bulls media day.

“I did some work for sportstownchicago.com, and they liked my show because with my previous connection, I had guys from the Bulls and Bears on with me,” Horvat added. “They paid me for the show and some play-by-play.”

While there is some intrigue and status associated with broadcast work involving professional sports, it wasn’t necessarily Horvat’s dream.

“For one thing, with our young son we just thought maybe it was best if we got out of Chicago,” Horvat said. “There’s some bad stuff.”

Local sports

Plus, the idea of coming to a smaller community and being the primary broadcaster for scholastic sports was closer to his dream.

“In Chicago, you might get access to (Bulls player) Joakim Noah, for example, but you’re there doing the same story as 50 other reporters,” Horvat said. “My grandpa, Gordy Gillespie, was the head coach at Joliet Catholic and the University of St. Francis. I always thought about broadcasting high school sports. I always wanted to cover it there (Joliet), but they have their guy at 1340 WJOL, and it’s a one-man crew.

“I like high school sports because you can tell the story,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of getting to know the coaches and the teams better.”

Horvat will have sports reports at 6:45 a.m., 7:40 a.m., 8:25 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. in addition to the Mid-Day Report that starts at 11 a.m. During that show, another sports recap airs after local news at about 12:20 p.m.

New show

Also, KSIB’s new news director, Greenfield native Jordan Armstrong, will co-host a new show with Horvat called “The Newsmakers.” It will air from 9:05 to 10 a.m. Tuesdays, beginning June 9. Armstrong had previously worked as an intern at KSIB, and recently had his duties expanded on a full-time basis.

“It’s kind of like a ‘Meet the Press’ type of show, with interviews related to what’s going on,” Horvat said. “I’ll help him with some interviews from the area, and we’ll have some time to talk about the issues.”

He said it’s exciting to begin his “dream” after spotting an ad last fall noting KSIB’s upcoming job opportunity related to Bucklin’s recent retirement.

“I emailed Chad (Rieck) and when I came out, I knew this was what I wanted to do,” Horvat said. “I asked Chad about it, though. I worried about people thinking, here’s a guy from Chicago, a city kid. What kind of reception would I get? I’m bringing my family out with me, and that’s important. I hope people know I’m coming in wanting to do a good job covering their teams, and I’ll work hard learning about them. And, hopefully get better in the process.”

The desire for constant improvement, after all, harks back to that piece of advice he got while sitting in that Chicago oral surgeon’s chair.

Those are some big shoes to fill.