Sports blog: Warrior Nation
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By JOHN NASH

Villager Sports Editor

WILTON -- On the night Bucky Gunts won his fourth Primetime Emmy award, on the same evening he became world-famous and all but a house-hold name, something far more special was happening outside of the glow of the bright lights of Hollywood.

The same week that Gunts, a Wilton resident and head of NBC's Olympic Production Group, won his latest Emmy, for "Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Comedy Special" at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday night, his oldest child, his son B.J., had gotten a job working as a production assistant on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

"I told somebody (on Tuesday), forget all this Emmy stuff and everything that happened," Gunts said after returning from the West Coast, "him getting the job with The Daily Show blows it all away."

Gunts won his latest Emmy for overseeing the Opening Ceremonies at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada. It was his fourth Primetime nod and 24th overall, having claimed 20 Sports Emmys over his career.

"I think they're all different because each opening ceremony is so different," Gunts said of the Primetime awards he has won. "Each had their own problems and each had their own great points."

Just like the Emmys themselves it would seem as the presentation to Gunts has been tabbed by media watchdogs as one of the top moments of the entire night.

Comedian Ricky Gervais was the presenter of the award and used the moment to wax funny on a variety of topics, ranging from the lack of beer backstage to Mel Gibson to Bucky Gunts.

"I hope it's Bucky Gunts, 'cause I didn't know you could say that on television," a grinning Gervais said. "Let's face it - we're all Bucky Gunts here."

The audience then erupted into applause when Gervais read the envelope and said, And the Emmy goes to... Bucky Gunts!!!"

Gunts took the good-natured ribbing in stride, though he didn't bring it up during his acceptance speech.

"It's all in good fun and I thought it was funny," Gunts said. "I told him when I was walking up and we kind of laughed. After, I saw him again and I stopped him and briefly talked to him, just to make sure he knew I knew it was all in good fun."

From New York City to Durham, N.H., where Kate Gunts is a junior lacrosse player at the University of New Hampshire, Gunts-a-mania took off in a hurry.

"For my kids, they were just going crazy," Gunts said. "My son said, 'Do you realize you're the world's most Tweeted person right now.' For them, that really resonated."

While the Twitter posts might have died down, they haven't disappeared completely, according to CNN's The Marquee Blog.

"I can't stop saying Bucky Gunts," posted on Tweeter while another asked, "I wonder where Bucky Gunts woke up this morning."

Gunts just hoped the jokes and the all the following fanfare didn't offend his fellow nominees, directors and producers he truly respects.

"I just hope the joke didn't get carried too far and offend my fellow nominees," Gunts said. "I hope they took it the same way, all in fun, but if you're on the other side of it."

Coincidentally, this wasn't Gunts first run-in with Gervais.

In a serendipitous Gunts-family twist, five years ago, following the Athens Olympic Games, Gervais -- who hosted the Emmys that year -- was on The Daily Show and told host Jon Stewart that the highlight was learning a man named Bucky Gunts existed.

Nobody would have thought Brent "Bucky" Gunts' life would take him around the world when he was growing up in Baltimore's Roland Park.

He graduated from Cornell ("I majored in lacrosse," Gunts quipped), not adding that in 1971 he was a member of the first-ever NCAA national championship team and graduated with a degree in economics.

When he returned home to Baltimore his first goal was to move out of his parent's house.

"My father was the GM at WBAL in Baltimore and he offered me a job," Gunts told the Villager in a 2008 interview before he headed to Beijing for the Summer Games.

Gunts got paid $90 a week as the station's overnight operational director, and and just like that a career was born.

Gunts left Baltimore to spend a year working in Phoenix before he returned to the East Coast when he got a job at WNBC-TV in New York City.

He was later hired by NBC, where he directed sporting events for baseball, basketball and golf.

In 1990, he shifted gears and worked as the director for The Today Show for four years.

"I enjoyed the opportunity to do 'The Today Show,'" Gunts said. "It was a chance to do something different. It was a high profile position. The thing I didn't enjoy was the hours and having to get up at three in the morning."

Sports, however, remained his true love; especially after NBC landed a golf package that included the U.S. Open and the Ryder Cup.

With the Emmys now behind him and his notoriety perhaps fading a little bit, Gunts knows its time to get back behind the scenes and start preparing for NBC's 2012 Summer Games in London.

With the resignation of David Neal as NBC's executive vice president of Olympic coverage, the network responded by creating the Olympic Production Group -- headed up by Gunts.

"I'm heading up the group and there's more responsibility, but I like it," he said.

As of right now, the London games are the last games NBC has the rights, too.

Future games have yet to be awarded, but Gunts expects his network to be a major player in the bidding process.

So despite being behind the scenes and away from the cameras, Bucky Gunts might once again step into the limelight as an Emmy winner and more.

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