Whether it's IU basketball or football, Don Fischer just can't escape the Suhrs

Jordan Guskey | IndyStar

INDIANAPOLIS – They had no idea this was going to happen. There were no aspirations to sit next to a legend or dreams to broadcast their impressions for Indiana University fans.

But how Buck Suhr and his son Errek became the color analysts for Don Fischer’s IU football and basketball broadcasts is no mistake and anything but random. Buck coached football at IU and spent time as an administrator with the program, while Errek was an IU basketball walk-on before he played his way to a scholarship.

They own a bond with those programs, as they do with the voice of Hoosier nation.

“It’s hard to explain,” Fischer said. “They’re just people I relate to, people that I enjoy being around. Buck makes me laugh all the time. Errek is just a special kid, and I say kid because I’ve known him since he was tiny. I’ve just always felt like they were special people.”

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Don Fischer is a 45-year veteran of IU football and basketball radio broadcasts and each time Buck and Errek Suhr watch him prepare for a game they notice the same care and dedication every time. It’s why he’s won the National Sports Media Association’s Indiana Sportscaster of the Year award 25 times, and why some mute their televisions on game day and turn up Fischer’s call.

More: Don Fischer wins first Woody Durham ‘Voice of College Sports’ Award

More: The best IU basketball player you've never heard of

Of course, it’s not just Fischer. A dedicated broadcast team with veterans such as Joe Smith helps him deliver day in and day out, and Buck, 65, and Errek Suhr, 34, fit into that storied vision, even with no prior broadcasting experience.

“Because of my relationship with Buck and the whole family, through the years there’s always been that comfort level,” said Fischer, who met Buck when Buck joined Bill Mallory’s coaching staff in 1984. “I didn’t feel like, ‘Man, we’re going to have some real problems here, I can’t step on their toes or anything like that.’ It’s never been like that.”

When Buck found out 82-year-old Bill Mallory had a bad fall in May, Fischer was his first call. Mallory died later that week.

When Fischer learned Buck’s daughter, Jenny, had died of cancer at 20 in December 1999, he visited Errek and Buck’s house many times.

That was a couple of years after Buck’s first stint as Fischer’s color analyst, from 1997-2001, began. He returned in 2010. Errek’s start came as a fill-in for Royce Waltman, who died of cancer in April 2014, and he has called games full-time since the 2014-15 season.

Both Buck and Errek were nervous at first. Thrown into the fire, unaware of what works, they needed to jell with what Buck refers to as Fischer’s “impeccable” timing.

It took time for the nerves to subside, as it would for anyone in the business. Buck needed to move away from coach-speak, Errek from saying, “We,” when he meant, “IU.” But they were malleable, quick learners who Fischer said never showed many nerves in the first place and weren’t afraid of the microphone.

Both are analytical and objective — although football’s pace of play allows Buck to bring a bit more levity to the broadcast — and able to employ their wealth of knowledge about the games they call. In that, Fischer was always confident. Errek didn’t develop into a fan favorite under two different coaching staffs for nothing, and Buck coached 1989 Heisman Trophy runner-up Anthony Thompson, among others.

“I’m one of those guys to understand that it wasn’t brain surgery that they were dealing with,” Fischer said. “It was simply broadcasting and basically talking about things that they already knew.”

Still, Buck admits he had a bit of a wake-up call during his first broadcast.

“(Don) did his opening and then left it to me and I turned to talk to him and he had his head down underneath the bench trying to fix some wires,” Buck said. “I was like, ‘Uh oh, guess I’m not talking to Don, I’m talking to the audience.’”

Errek sought out his dad for advice before his debut.

“There’s no way I can be you,” Buck remembers Errek saying.

“Well, I can’t be you either,” Buck replied. “So, just be yourself.”

Buck’s wife, Jane, said she told them throughout it all they’d be fine. Just relax. She thought Buck was a natural fit with Fischer since Buck is a “people person” who knows the game and is friends with Fischer. Errek was someone she always thought had a future in broadcasting anyway.

“He’s a handsome young man,” Jane said. “He’s very articulate and he knows athletics and I thought he’d be great on TV.”

Errek supposes he did just well enough for Fischer to call him back, and doesn’t shy away from how much his dad’s friendship with Fischer played a role in him receiving an invitation at all. Errek’s credentials as a basketball mind are clear, but Fischer’s comfort level with Buck and his family is undeniable.

“Those were the two ingredients that kind of went into the first opportunity,” Errek said.

As Fischer said, he’s known the kid since Errek was tiny. Errek, born in 1984, grew up a fan of the Hoosiers as his dad coached with Mallory and remained with the program under Cam Cameron. Through that time the scrappy Bloomington North High basketball product, who would graduate from IU in 2007, watched his dad’s friendship with Fischer grow.

But for most of that time he was also just a kid who barely knew how to make it to the local Walmart, let alone foster a relationship with Fischer. In college he was an undersized guard who tried to earn playing time as he juggled class and friends.

“You go years and years of knowing someone where it’s not like I’ve done anything to really strengthen the relationship but just years and years of not screwing up,” Errek said.

Golf would prove to be a way for both Buck and Errek to develop their friendships with Fischer, who Errek said always makes the clutch putt.

Fischer saw a kid in college who played with so much heart former IU coach Mike Davis told him he would show his Texas Southern University players film of how Errek practiced so they understood how hard he wanted them to work.

It’s a work ethic Fischer believes Errek picked up from Buck, who Errek thought would always be a coach.

That dream ended when Gerry DiNardo took over IU football before the 2002 season, declined to retain Buck on his staff and told Fischer not to either. Fischer fought to keep Buck until he said DiNardo threatened to withhold access to practices and the coaching staff.

“I was heartsick that we lost Buck,” Fischer said.

Turnover within the athletic department would eventually allow Fischer to bring Buck back, and DiNardo remains the only coach Fischer’s seen have a problem with Buck or Errek. Neither has given Fischer a reason to believe they shouldn’t be trusted by a coaching staff.

Big Ten Network did not respond to a request for comment from DiNardo, who is a studio analyst for the network.

Fischer and Buck, who grew up in towns about a half hour from each other in Illinois, kept in touch during the intervening years. Buck spent time in radio and retired after working in the financial world — where Errek owns a job with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

“Our relationship has honestly never changed,” Fischer said. “Not from Errek’s standpoint. Not from Buck’s standpoint.”

Their friendships are strong enough where they don’t have to see each other all the time, and when Buck came back he hadn’t lost a step.

“It’s an amazing experience and I don’t take it for granted one-second because it is a great opportunity and it does keep me young,” Buck said. “No question about it.”

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Don Fischer doesn’t have a retirement date scheduled, and it might not come for years, but if Errek and Buck Suhr are still calling games when that day arrives, there’s a chance that’ll be the end of their broadcast careers, too.

It’s not that there’s a contract that says they’re a package deal, but the bond Errek and Buck have developed with Fischer is part of why they enjoyed it so much.

From the standpoint of the bond these men share, it doesn’t surprise Fischer they’d feel that way.

“It does surprise me that they would give up something that I think that they enjoy and love because of the sports that they do,” Fischer said. “It surprises me in that sense because I believe they could work with anybody and be successful.”

Except for the IU job, Buck’s retired, and Errek and his wife are raising four kids all younger than 10. It’s too early to tell if those four will continue a Suhr broadcasting family tree, but they do love hearing their grandfather call games.

Errek’s family is one of those that turns down the television and turns up Buck and Fischer.

Still, Fischer will be the star for the foreseeable future and Buck and Errek are fine with that. When they tease him about people who want to say hello or take a picture with him, it’s done in jest.

“They’re both humble guys, both very proud people,” Fischer said. “They both know that they know, they’re very confident in themselves, but you’re not dealing with people that have so much ego that they can’t allow somebody else to be upstaging them.”

Buck and Errek characterize Fischer as someone who doesn’t have differing on-air and off-air personalities. He’s the same guy in the booth as he is outside it, and both approach each season with the same thought.

“As long as Don wants me, I’m there.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.