FAYETTEVILLE -- The first time Bo Busby found himself at an Arkansas Razorbacks football game he was playing in it.
Busby, a safety from Monticello, made his Razorbacks debut on Sept. 15, 1973 -- 44 years ago today -- in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against No. 1 USC.
"First time I went on the field as a true freshman I lined up across from a guy named Lynn Swann," Busby said with a smile. "You may have heard of him."
Swann, now USC's athletic director, was a consensus All-American receiver for the Trojans in 1973 and went on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was MVP of Super Bowl X. He's also in the College Football Hall of Fame.
"I know one thing, Swann never got behind me," Busby said, recalling his role in USC's 17-0 victory over the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. "I was so far down the field that it looked like we were playing with 10 men on defense.
"Swann would have had to run out of the stadium and go out on the interstate to get behind me."
Busby, a heart surgeon at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, talked about his playing days last weekend when he was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Honor. Inductees are selected by Arkansas' lettermen's club.
"The neat part about it is that it's voted on by the athletes, the guys who played," Busby said. "That's pretty special to be recognized by your peers."
Busby, one of seven children, said his parents were always too busy to go to an Arkansas game in Little Rock or Fayetteville when he was growing up.
"My dad was a doctor in Monticello and worked all the time," he said. "We just never went to games."
Bennie Ellender, Arkansas State University's coach from 1963-1970, recruited Busby first for ASU and then for Tulane, where he became the Green Wave coach in 1971.
Busby said he flew on an airplane for the first time -- on a flight from Little Rock to New Orleans -- when he took a recruiting visit to Tulane in 1972 when the Green Wave played LSU.
The Tigers won 9-3, but Busby said it was a fun weekend, especially getting to watch future NFL star quarterback Bert Jones play for LSU.
"Everything was good until the trip home when they put me on the wrong plane leaving New Orleans and I ended up in Nashville, Tennessee," Busby said. "It took me all day to get home. My mother was really mad."
Arkansas assistant coach Merv Johnson visited Busby's home in Monticello when Busby was in New Orleans, talked to his mother and offered a scholarship.
"My mother told me I wasn't going on any more recruiting trips," Busby said. "She said, 'You're going to the University of Arkansas. I've already told Coach Johnson you're coming.'
"That was it. So I signed my letter of intent without ever going to an Arkansas game or visiting the campus. But it all worked out."
Busby was a first-team All-Southwest Conference pick at free safety as a junior in 1975 when Arkansas won a share of the SWC title and beat Georgia 31-10 in the Cotton Bowl to finish 10-2 and ranked No. 7 in The Associated Press poll.
One of the season's highlights was Arkansas' 31-6 victory over second-ranked Texas A&M in Little Rock to earn its first Cotton Bowl trip since the 1965 season.
"We beat A&M like a drum," Busby said. "For the last 12 minutes of that game, we played the exact same defense every down because it was so loud on the field we couldn't even call signals in the huddle."
Arkansas lost to Oklahoma State 20-13 and to No. 8 Texas 24-18 to start 4-2 in 1975, then closed the season with a six-game winning streak in which the Razorbacks outscored their opponents 174-53.
"After the Texas game we had a come to Jesus team meeting," Busby said. "We knew we were a better team than we'd shown, and we took it to a higher level the rest of the season.
"We were that team at the end of the year you didn't want to play."
Arkansas was ranked No. 13 going into the 1976 season, but finished 5-5-1.
"We should have been a better team in '76, but had some injuries and we also had some issues," Busby said. "We just didn't have the team unity we had in '75."
Busby finished his Arkansas career with 225 tackles after breaking into the starting lineup early in his freshman season.
"I think Bo was the type of player you want when you think about the Razorbacks," said Harold Horton, an Arkansas assistant from 1968-1980. "He was tough, he was hard-nosed, and he was the quarterback of our defense back in that secondary.
"Look at what he's doing right now professionally. His mentality just brought a lot to the team. You can win with players like Bo because of the type of person he is."
Busby estimated that he's done more than 6,000 heart surgeries the past 30 years.
"Bo's a worker today just like when he was a player," Horton said. "He might be at the hospital at 2 o'clock in the morning or 4 o'clock in the morning because that's when someone needs surgery, and he's good at what he does."
Busby said he couldn't attend Arkansas' opener this season against Florida A&M in Little Rock because he was in surgery.
"You miss a lot of things," he said of the time demands being a heart surgeon. "You miss a lot of birthdays and holidays and anniversaries.
"But it's been a very rewarding career. I can't complain."
Busby, 62, entered the Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor 41 years after playing his last game for the Razorbacks.
"Coach Horton told me one time, 'If you live long enough, you'll get in,' " Busby said with a laugh. "I'm the example of that."
Busby's final game at Arkansas -- Dec. 4, 1976 when Texas beat Arkansas 29-12 in Austin -- was more memorable than facing USC and covering Swann in his first game.
It was the final game as coaches for Arkansas' Frank Broyles and Texas' Darrel Royal.
"It was a sad day," Busby said. "The first thing is, we lost to Texas, and that wasn't any good.
"Then to see two of the legends in football walk away from it in the same game, made it really tough. I think they both still had plenty of coaching left in them, but I guess they felt they'd done it long enough."
Broyles, Arkansas' athletic director from 1973-2007, died Aug. 14 at 92 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Busby said he visited Broyles a few days before his death.
"Coach Broyles talked about a lot of things -- players and games --very clearly," Busby said. "It was just a very fun day.
"I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Sports on 09/15/2017