John "Bucky" Albers
Birthdate: December 17, 1938
Birthplace: Fort Loramie, OH
High School: Fort Loramie (Ohio) High School (1956)
College: University of Dayton (1968)
Year Inducted: 2020
Few journalists have as much affinity for the game of competitive basketball or as much experience covering it on multiple levels as John “Bucky” Albers. A native of Fort Loramie in western Ohio, Albers became an institution as a sports reporter in Dayton – starting out with the Dayton Daily News as a 17-year-old University of Dayton journalism student in 1956, and working for a handful of other local publications until his retirement from DDN in 2006.
After brief stints with newspapers in Sidney and Fairborn, he joined the Dayton Journal Herald staff in 1962, where he remained until it merged with the Dayton Daily News in 1982. He covered everything from high school sports, the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Royals, Ohio State University football and basketball, University of Dayton sports, PGA golf and auto racing.
His career allowed him to travel to several national championship tournaments, including the UD Flyers’ trip to the 1967 NCAA Final Four in Louisville, Ohio State’s 1968 Final Four appearance in Los Angeles, the 1980 Regional Tournament in Tucson, Ariz., and the 1991 Regional in Pontiac, Mich. Albers covered 15 Masters Tournaments, 11 U.S. Opens, 10 World Series, eight Super Bowls, five MLB All-Star games, NCAA basketball championships, Indianapolis and Daytona 500s, and the 1974 Ali-Frazier heavyweight bout at Madison Square Garden.
He has received many accolades for his work, including the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame (2001), Dayton Hockey Hall of Fame (2004), Southern Ohio PGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), Dayton Amateur Golf Hall of Fame (2009), Dayton Speedway Hall of Fame (2010) and the Fort Loramie High School Wall of Honor (2011).
Albers served for many years on the Board of Trustees and Hall of Fame Selection Committee for the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. He dedicated many hours to researching, fact-checking, and writing the biographical information for each Hall of Fame inductee, serving in this capacity for over 10 years.
Bucky and his wife, Judy, have two children and live in Dayton.
