Buck was born on August 7, 1892 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He attended high school there and was named to Wisconsin's all-state prep team as a center. Playing for the Wisconsin Badgers from 1913 to 1915, he never missed a game and earned three All-Western Conference honors.
Coaching and professional playing career
After graduating, Buck served as an assistant football coach at Wisconsin in 1916. That year he also starting playing professional football for the Canton Bulldogs. Buck played under an assumed name, Moriarity, because his parents didn't want him playing professionally, especially on Sundays. Buck coached at Wisconsin during the week and for games on Saturdays, then travelled to the site of the Bulldogs game on Sunday. In 1917, Buck was hired as the head football coach and athletic director at Carleton College at age 25. Coaching through World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in three years his teams were 10–7. He continued to play with Jim Thorpe and the Bulldogs through 1920, the first year of the American Professional Football Association. Thorpe called Buck the greatest lineman he had played with or against. Buck added an extra game in 1920 by playing in the Green Bay Packers' last game of their season. In 1921, the Packers joined the fledgling professional league that would become the NationalFootball League. Curly Lambeau made Buck the first Packer with a guaranteed salary by paying him $75 per game. That year was the first Green Bay–Chicago game and it featured the first cheap shot of the storied rivalry. John "Tarzan" Taylor slugged Buck and broke his nose. Buck played for the Packers through the 1925 season. Besides playing both sides of the line, Buck was the punter and placekicker. From 1922 to 1925, Buck made 24 of 35 extra points and 10 of 28 field goals for a total of 54 points. He led the Packers in scoring in 1923 and threw a touchdown pass in 1924. While playing for the Packers, Buck coached for the Lawrence Vikings, mainly as an assistant, but he was the head coach for the 1923 season. He was also the executive director of the Boy Scouts in Appleton. In 1926, Buck became the first head coach of the Miami Hurricanes football program. Before the team could play its first game, a hurricane destroyed the under-construction stadium and postponed the start of the season. The first team was a freshman squad; they went 8–0, including two defeats of the University of Havana, one in Miami and one in Havana. During the first two varsity seasons, the Hurricanes were 3–6–1 in 1927 and 4–4–1 in 1928.
