Indy Origins: Jim Buckley Brought Sports to the 'Independent'

August 24, 2026 - 20:55

Back in 1993, a former Sports Illustrated staffer named Jim Buckley walked into the offices of the Independent and changed the way the paper covered athletics. Buckley did not just report scores. He brought a magazine sensibility to a weekly newspaper, focusing on the people behind the games, the odd rituals, and the small moments that box scores miss.

His arrival was not a grand announcement. It was more of a slow shift. Readers started noticing longer features, more personality-driven columns, and a willingness to cover sports that did not make the front page of the big dailies. Buckley had a knack for finding the local angle, the high school coach who had been there for thirty years, or the semipro team playing in a park nobody could find on a map.

What made his work stand out was his voice. He wrote like a fan who had done his homework, not like a broadcaster trying to sell drama. He trusted the reader to care about the details. And they did. His pieces often started with a scene, not a stat, and that drew people in.

Buckley stayed for years, and his influence outlasted his byline. He helped set a standard for sports writing that the Independent still follows today. For a paper that prided itself on independence, it made sense that a guy who left a big national title to work in a smaller sandbox would find his best material right here.