“Imagine telling Babe Ruth this is who would be throwing out the first pitch to open the 2026 MLB season.”
Kevin DiCicco, the man who discovered and trained Buddy the dog and created the Air Bud franchise, has died at 63. His brother, Mark DiCicco, confirmed the death to TMZ.
If you grew up in the late ’90s, chances are Air Bud holds a special place in your childhood.
The story of a golden retriever who could sink baskets was pure movie magic — the kind of film you watched on repeat, begged to rent at Blockbuster, or caught on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Now, as many of us share those same movies with our own kids, the story behind the franchise has taken a heartbreaking turn.
DiCicco died Saturday in San Diego after spending his final days in hospice care. The cause of death was advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
According to the Mayo Clinic “is an ongoing lung condition caused by damage to the lungs.” The condition often results in swelling and inflammation inside the airways that can limit airflow.
How a Stray Dog Became a Legend
The origin story of Air Bud reads like something out of a family movie itself.
In 1989, DiCicco found a stray dog near his cabin in Yosemite, California. He brought the dog home, named him Buddy, and discovered something remarkable — the golden retriever had an extraordinary talent with a ball.
DiCicco trained Buddy to play basketball, baseball, football and soccer. The duo’s talents landed them spots on America’s Funniest Home Videos and David Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks.
“My obsession with sport, and his obsession with ball playing, the combination of the two, created this tremendous canine athlete,” DiCicco said of Buddy in a 2024 interview with NBC News.
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DiCicco worked with independent producer Keystone Entertainment to develop the concept into a film. Miramax acquired distribution rights, and Disney, Miramax’s parent company at the time, released the film to video.
The original 1997 movie follows Buddy, a runaway circus dog who befriends a boy named Josh and helps lead his school’s basketball team to a championship.
The franchise grew to 14 films released between 1997 and 2013 — five original Air Bud movies and nine spin-offs centered around Buddy’s pups. DiCicco earned 11 credits across the franchise for creating the character.
Buddy himself died in 1998, but DiCicco bred and trained three of the dog’s offspring for future films.
Kevin DiCicco's Life Struggles
Despite the franchise’s reach and longevity, DiCicco said he saw little financial benefit from its success. He lost his job as a property manager during the COVID-19 pandemic, became homeless and developed severe clinical depression.
His COPD required him to use an oxygen tank to breathe.
“With pretty much nothing in your pocket and in a dire situation is exactly what happened. I think the worst part of it … is the severe clinical depression that goes along with it,” DiCicco told NBC News.
“They are so cleverly crafted to make sure that these films don’t really ever receive the big money,” DiCicco said in a 2024 interview with Fox 5 San Diego. “That’s why we now find ourselves in a position of instead of enjoying those twilight years and sliding into retirement, we’re almost having to start over.”
A sixth original film, Air Bud Returns, is set for a theatrical release on Aug. 21, 2026 — a movie DiCicco will never get to see in theaters.
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For parents who grew up loving the original, it could be a chance to share something meaningful with their own children, even as the real story behind the franchise carries a weight no family film could capture.
