October 14, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Brandon Burlsworth first stepped onto the University of Arkansas practice field, almost no one believed he belonged there. He had no scholarship, no athletic pedigree, and nothing to recommend him beyond an unshakable work ethic. Yet every morning, he showed up before the sun and stayed long after the lights went out. Over time, the kid from Harrison earned his place among the Razorbacks’ best. His discipline transformed him from an overlooked walk-on into an All-American lineman, respected by coaches, teammates, and fans who saw something rare in his character. Brandon’s family and coaches share the story of the man for whom the national award for the best walk-on player is named.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded every year for the most
outstanding Division one college football player who began his career
as a walk on. Previous recipients include Tampa Bay's quarterback
Baker Mayfield and Stetson Bennett of the La Rams. It's
(00:33):
named after Brandon Burlsworth, a truly remarkable person on and
off the field. Here to get us started with the
story is Tommy Tye, Brandon's high school coach. Take it away, Tommy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Brandon Burlsworth's the best person I ever met in my life.
My name is Tommy Tice. Then I was Brandon's high
school coach. I first came in to meet Brandon when
he was the seventh grader and he entered our program
and started his journey from there through the high school.
(01:07):
And I remember being called by the junior high coach
at that time, man named Inky Williams, and Inkey wanted
me to come look at this young man. He said,
he's really going to be something special. So I was
paying a little bit closer attention to Brandon as he
got to be a ninth grader, because he's one step
away from coming into our high school program. And I
looked at him, and Brandon was a great kid. Certainly
(01:30):
everybody was proud to see him, but I didn't see
anything special. I kind of thought that Coach Williams might
have been maybe in bibing in the spirits a little
bit when he made that evaluation, But he was right.
The thing that became very apparent to me about Brandon
(01:51):
was you weren't going to run him off. He was
going to be there every day. He was going to
be early, He's going to be one of the last
ones to leave, sometimes with tears in his eyes or
maybe your bloody nose, and sometimes maybe both. But he'd
be back the next day. And that told you an
awful lot about it, because we constantly told our kids,
(02:14):
if you stay, you'll play, Just stay, just dig in tough,
gritchy teeth, and you know it's all gonna be okay. Now,
his senior year he really blossomed into an outstanding player.
But you know, when you're around kids every day, you
(02:34):
don't notice them growing, you know. And by the time
I think he came in his senior year, he's probably
about six foot tall, maybe two hundred and fifteen two
hundred and twenty pounds. But that spring of his senior year,
after going through the season, after he'd made All State,
played in the high school All Star game, he was
(02:54):
about six two, two hundred and thirty five pounds, and
he was much much stronger. Again, never took a day off.
And one thing he did his senior year one of
his goals. And he was tremendous goal setter. You know,
we'd talk about goals and we'd tell him that goals
are only dreams unless you write them down and put
(03:16):
them someplace in your room where you can see him
every day. And he'd repeat that to me. And I
know I never want in his room, but I know
they were there somewhere. So one of his goals his
senior year was to beat me to work every morning.
And I get there pretty early, about six o'clock every morning,
(03:37):
and every morning, sometimes in the dark, sitting by the
door was Brandon. And every now and then he didn't
say a whole lot, but if I was late, he
might say sleep in the day, coach, and I'd say, Borlsworth,
don't quit your day job. You're not that funny. And
so his senior year we won the conference championship and
(04:01):
he was a not all like I said, an all
state player. He wanted to be a college player, and
he continued to work, continued to work, and that spring
he went to a couple of basically tryout situations at
Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and at Arkansas Tech and Russellville.
He comes back first. I get a call from the
coach at Arkadelphia and he said, when did you become
(04:23):
a liar? I said, I did not ever quit. He said, well,
you told me this Burlsworth kid was this tall thist, wait,
this strong, this fast? And he said, he's bigger, he's stronger,
he's faster. You know, are the Razorbacks not interested in him?
Because we don't want to offer him. If the Razorbacks are,
you know, are interested, I said, they're not interested. So
(04:45):
they were going to offer same thing from coach at
Arkansas Tech Brooks Hollisworth at the time, and h on Monday,
after he got back from those places, I called him
into the office and I was really excited that he
was going to get an offer tunity to play college football.
And I was telling him I said, man, this is great.
You're gonna get you has to play, continue your career playing.
(05:07):
You're going to help you mama out because I know
that financial situation. This is going to be a really
big deal for you. Well, quickly I figured out I'm
the only guy in the room it's excited. He's not excited.
He's sitting there and he's looking at the floor, and
he looks up at me. And this is one thing
(05:29):
that I learned about Brandon and all kids. Be careful
what you say to them because it may come back
at you at any time. And he told me, he said, Coach,
you told me and the rest of the team. It
didn't matter what anybody else said. It only mattered what
we thought. And I'm going, oh, I'm trapped, Coach. I
(05:53):
want to be a razorback and I'm going to be
a razorback. What are you going to do? I had
Danny Ford's number at the Universe and we knew each other,
and I called him and I said, please take one
more look at this kid. He's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster.
He said, I'll have Harold Horton as the heead of
recruiting it. I have Harold look at I said, no,
(06:13):
I want Harold look at Harold's Arey looked at him.
He's a verry really not as a favor, I'd like
for you to look at And after seeing the new
statistics and new little tapes that we'd done some things
with running through ropes and stuff like this, he said, Tommy,
we don't have these scholarships. We'll make him a preferred
walk on. I said, what's a preferred walk on? He said, nothing.
(06:36):
It just sounds good. You know, it's it's a walk
on situation. If anybody knows what a walk on is.
It's not a real good life. You get the hand
me down equipment. You may get a few reps, but
you ain't gonna get much, and you'll be a tackling dummy.
And you know, and you're already told them the beginning
you're not good enough, and the coaches are not really
(06:56):
wanting you because if you come and you make it,
it makes them look bad because they didn't recruit you
in the first blaze.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And you've been listening to Tommy Tice. The thing that
became apparent about Brandon. You couldn't run him off. He
wanted to be a razorback. That is, of course an
Arkansas razorback. In the SEC they don't have scholarships. He
was told that did not deter Brandon. More of this
remarkable story, the story of Brandon Burlsworth here on Our
(07:26):
American Story Lee Hubeib here and I'd like to encourage
you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts,
the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts.
Any story you missed or want to hear again can
be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our
(07:48):
American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or
anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these
great American stories coming. And we continue with our American
(08:11):
Stories and the story of Brandon Burlsworth. When we last
left off, Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tace, was telling
us about Brandon's career leading up to receiving preferred walk
on status at the University of Arkansas. Here to tell
us now about the start of Brandon's life. He's his
brother Marty and Marty's wife Vicky. Take it away, Marty.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Now, when Brandon was born, you know that's kind of
that's really strange for me. You know, I'm fifteen at
the time, would turn sixteen a couple of months. But
having a baby in the house. Wow, you know, fifteen
year old, I'm trying to be cool. You know, I
don't know what to do with this. He's not going
with me. Yeah, I'm not taking him anywhere. That's not cool.
I'm not hanging out with a two year old or whatever,
(08:57):
a three year old. But he was fun when he
got a little bit older, when he got out of
the baby baby stage, and I could mess with him,
have him do silly things and play pretend baseball in
the living room and hav him sliding headfirst on the
carpet and all kinds of things like that. It was,
you know, a lot. It was a lot of fun.
But you know, as a kid eight or nine, ten
(09:21):
years old, there was no indication that you were looking
at a future All American, at an NFL player, nothing,
Just the same as everybody else trying to figure it out.
Just a normal kid loved sports. He didn't have any
choice because you know, he's going to be with me.
You know that we're gonna be balling in some way,
(09:42):
whether it's football, basketball, baseball, really into baseball, but you know,
he was just like everybody else, loved to play ball.
I coached baseball junior high age. Brandon was eight or
nine years old, ten years old. He wanted to come
out and be at practice. So I'd always bring to
baseball practice with my t team. The angry is no more.
He just shagballs and you know, just helped me out.
(10:04):
And he wasn't very good. He just wasn't naturally gifted.
It certainly didn't show it at that age, but I
knew that we will run sprints at the end of practice,
and he was kind of chunky. I always felt like
he was kind of chunky. Always felt like, you, hey man,
you need to get after here he is. You know,
you look back on him, you say, the kid's nine
or ten years old, and you're trying to make him
(10:26):
act like he's sixteen or seventeen, you know. But he'd
run sprints with and always did. But I'm trying to
get some that weight off of him. And it wasn't
like he's an unhealthy, you know, fat kid. He wasn't
just kind of chunky, and he'd like to lay around
watch at TV. He wore out a Star Wars VHS.
I don't know how many times I'd come over to
the house as he's watching that again. But when he
(10:49):
got older, he got thirteen years old. Now he's old
enough to be in our league, own our team, and
so he was playing on my team, and at that
time told him, all right, here's the deal. There's rules
in the league. And I'm saying that much more formal
than he and I talked about it. But rules in
the league. Everybody bats once, regardless of how good or
bad or Everybody bats at least once during the game
(11:12):
and plays two innings in the field. That's the rules
that does not apply to you, because this is family.
If I want to bench you and not play at all,
that's what I'm going to do. And the only reason
I said that is we're going to set a goal.
I want you to lose two pounds. Every week. You
lose those two pounds, we're going to go. You're gonna play.
He lost those two pounds every week all season long.
(11:34):
Never felt put him on scales. He's lost those two pounds.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The Burlsworth family is a very small family. There was
very few of us, and so we were together all
the time, and so Brandon lived with his mom. Dad
was not around that much. An alcoholic. He had kind
of battled it, had gotten control of it, but he
still wasn't in the picture much. You know, we'd loved
(12:01):
him and try to keep him around as much. But
that's why he and Marty, I think, developed such a bond.
Brandon and Marty were together a lot. Whatever we were doing,
we would take him with us, you know, mom was
working or Brandon just wanted to be with us. He
really looked up to Marty. A lot of people would
say that Marty was the father figure, and we don't
like saying that because he d had a dad that
(12:22):
had some issues but was still the dad. But they
were just really really tight brothers.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And I didn't. I wasn't very fond of being called dad. So, oh,
your boys played a good game. It's not my son.
And that happened a lot. Even happened senior year in
high school, which was strange.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It happened last week.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah I did, didn't. It happened a lot, and it's
still happened, and now it makes a little more sense.
Maybe you know, years go by it, But when we're
when we've got like a two year older and and
I'm being congratulated on my son, who's my brother, you know,
I was. I was crazy about that. Finally, just like
flying whatever.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
They weren't really really close. It was just a tight
bond the whole family. We called ourselves the Inner Circle
because we just all knew that we had each other's
back and that whatever happened, it always seemed to be
the same little core people. Anyway, he was fun to
be run now. He wouldn't talk much. If he wanted
to start something, he'd get Marty to start it, not him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Tremendous attitude. Everything was yes, sir, no sir. If you
wanted any more words out of his mouth, you're going
to have to drag him out most of the time.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
But he wasn't holder than now. He set a really
good example. Most of the things that Brannan did, Marty
and I found out after the accident.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
One of my favorite stories is Humbledness. Okay, Brandon gets
so silly, gosh awful looking glasses and he's at the
house one day and while he was Blast said, what
are you doing getting those glasses? You look like Drew Carey,
you know, let's see. She said, Oh, coach, they just
(14:03):
feel good on my head. I said, really, I said,
let me look at them. Well, we talked a little
bit about his goal setting. Okay, so one of his
goals the senior year was to be all American. If
you look at them, nosepiece right here in the middle,
it's etched all American. He kept it right in front
(14:23):
of his eyes the whole time he was practicing and playing.
And I said, I know why you got those glasses.
You did it to get publicity. Oh no, coach, No, No,
that's no. I wouldn't do that. I don't you know me.
I don't want to draw attention to myself. I wouldn't
do that. And that's when I figured it out. Right
there it was. I tossed him back to him. I said,
(14:45):
I understand where this is at. That's the way.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
It was one of my favorite stories about Brendan in
his college years. And we didn't know this till after
the accident passed away, but a couple of the Razorbacks called.
They were telling us that they had been gone to
his room and Brandon was in his room study in
which he did. He was, you know, as well as
a great football player, he was a great scholar, but
(15:10):
he was recopying his notes, which he did all the time.
His writing was tiny, but very pretty writing he just had.
But he was so from the day's notes. He was
recopying them. And the razorback said, girls, how do you
do it? Great athlete, great scholar, you're just a good person.
(15:32):
What are you doing? What's your secret? And they said
Brandon never looked up that. He reached his hand up,
grabbed his Bible from a shelf that's there, pointed at him,
didn't say a word, put it back in the on
his shelf, and went on. Never said a word, but
(15:53):
he said everything, and that Marty and I are both driven, hard,
driven people. We want Brandon's story to be known everywhere.
But Brandon had it figured out. He knew where his
success was and what had gotten him there.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He ended my playing career. In my days as a coach,
every now and then I would ask for a helmet
for one of the younger kids and show him how
to perform a technique. So I was going to show
this sophomore how to perform this defensive line technique where
he would engage a blocker and he get off a
blocker and make a tackle. So give me that helmet.
I put that helmet on and I turned around, look
(16:32):
and he was in front of the line. And usually
I performed these techniques on sophomores and they would always
let me win. So I knew there wasn't no way
to get out of this, you know. And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
brand will probably you know, he'll probably take it easy
on me.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
When we came together, bells are ringing and birds are sinking,
and I knew I had to get up, and I
got up, ripped that helmet, off, through it to that
young man. I got it from my turn to Burl's
word and I said, now, don't you ever make me
have to show you how to do that again? And
I went off. I said, okay, everybody get a drink,
(17:13):
and oh man, you know one system coach comes over
and said, you all right, yay, I'm good after practice.
To Brandon's credit, he did come by and check on me,
but he put me He put those into my playing career.
Never did that again, so it was a good thing.
My wife was tickled to hear it that I wouldn't
play anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And you're listening to Brandon, Burlsworth's brother Marty and Marty's
wife Vicky talk about the young Brandon and how he matured,
and Marty ended up being sort of a dad like
or fatherlike figure. I didn't like being called that, but
there was adversity in young Brandon's life, adversity he overcame.
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
(17:54):
Brandon Burlsworth here on our American stories. And we continue
with our American stories and the story of Brandon Burlsworth.
Telling the story is Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tace,
(18:17):
and Brandon's older brother and his wife, Marty and Vicki Burlsworth.
Let's continue with the story here again is Marty.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Every boy growing up myself included, Oh, to be a razorback,
that'd be like saying I want to be Kansas City chief. Well,
this is how it happened. Like Coach Tyson was saying
he had scholarship offers from some smaller schools that well
(18:53):
that wanted him. You know, on smaller schools. I learned
the Beach one school, you get a scholarship. It's covered
the smaller called Division two. There's very few full scholarships,
they're partial scholarships. We had a coach he called me back, Hey,
I got him books. Oh that's good. Coach called back
a week or so, I got I got it. No
(19:15):
more room covered. So finally had a complete full ride
for a division. A friend of mine said, call Harold
Horton at the university. That's what we call it, the
university in this state. You say the university, No one
says of Arkansas the university. That's all you need to know.
So I called Harold Horton, the recruiting coordinator. They didn't
(19:39):
call us, but I called him. Coach Hortan says, yeah,
come on over for the game. So we came over
for a recruiting visit with all the other players that
were in that probably didn't call. They called them. And
I can remember being in the north end zone patio
area that's all been torn down and rebuilt now, but
there's a patio area that look down on the field
(20:01):
right where the players come out. Standing there with Brandon,
We're looking down the offensive lineman come out for Arkansas
and I'm looking down at him, looking at him, and
you can tell he's like, this is it? I said,
what do you think he is?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
M M?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's you know, big words there for Brandon, it's a
lot of talk. So when these other schools are calling
and saying we've got his books, we've got him, you know,
I knew that probably not gonna happen, cause he wanted
to be a Razor back. So continued over the winter,
we'd go back over for visits. During basketball season, Coach
Horton started to warm up a little bit to 'em. Yeah,
(20:41):
you know, I'm tracking how many scholarships are still available.
So Brandon and I were going over to a basketball game.
Coach Horton told us where to find him. So Brandon
h I said, Okay, this is what we're gonna do.
I said, we get over there, I want you to
stand as tall as you can, you know, stand close
to him, stand up good and tall. He said, okay,
so we had to, you know, we in this out.
So Brandon is standing. I'd love to see a video
(21:03):
or that, cause it have to be funny. And I'm
talking to Coach Horton and brand is standing right beside him,
and he and cause I've been telling him he's still growing,
and he's still grown. He's just seventeen years old. Coach
Hohorton looks up at Brandler said, and he said, well,
he's growing, is and he sa, yeah, he is, Coach,
he's still growing, you know. So we're trying to We're
still working it. So things like that on and on
over the months. Talk to Coach Hohorton. One time, we
(21:24):
getting right down to the wire. Can we get a scholarship? Coach,
We're just not gonna. I don't think we're gonna be
able to do that. And I said, coach, he what
he wants is to have his name announced that graduation,
walk across that stage with a scol athletic scholarship to
the University of Arkansas. He said, well, it's it. It's pride.
(21:44):
It's pride is And I said, yeap, pride in a
good way. He said, no, good way. And that's the
time that he said those words. I'll ever forget. On
the phone, Coach Horton says, well, we're gonna make this work.
I've talked to some coaches at these other schools that
he's gonna pass on. But when he gets here, if
it doesn't work, he'll be able to go to those
(22:05):
But when he gets here, we'll know, and he'll know.
I said, okay, coach, but yeah, but he's not going down,
which you know, to the lower level. He said, when
he gets here, we'll know he repeats it, and he'll know.
I said, coach, listen, he's not going down. He said,
(22:27):
all right. I said, he'll show you, and he did
a welcome. That's not enough. I remember calling after that
first year, after January, after that first season, which he
was just scouted team red shirt, he dressed for a
couple of games, you know, which was cool for us.
I took pictures of him with his jersey on with
(22:47):
his name on the back. I'm like, done, that's awesome.
Hey man, I've got this for your kids. One day
you can show them this. No, that ain't enough now.
I didn't think it was there. But if that would
have been me, yeah, I'm probably pretty happy right now.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
If I don't get a play, I've made the team.
I've got a locker, got my name on the back
of a razorback jersey. This is you know, forever. But
that just wasn't enough for him, nor should it have been,
and so he just kept working forward that and he
showed up over at the university in August for to
a day's and they still were at that time to
(23:25):
a day's about three hundred pounds even over something. You know,
it's been exaggerated in places, but anyways, way too heavy.
And August in Arkansas on the old astro turf, it
was borderline dangerous for him. You know, his face was red,
but you know, he's not gonna quit. He's gonna keep going.
But they took all that weight off of him pretty
(23:47):
quickly because they saw the person that had better yet,
the personality had that this guy's gonna get it done,
that he's not gonna quit, that he's gonna go hard
every day. And the coaches stayed around after practice to
work with him, and then he got coach Bender and
it was all great from there.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Did I think he was ever going to play, No,
But I knew he would be there. When he was
a junior, you know, they played in Fedville, played to
Auburn and they lost, and I'd never been to the
dressing room before, but I felt like I had to
go that day. I knew that he would be terribly upset.
Of course, by this time, he's on scholarship and he's
(24:33):
already been all SEC academic, you know, at this time,
and he makes all SEC two years and then he
goes on to All American. The last game he played
was in the Citrus Bowl against Tom Brady Michigan. I
think he's drafted sixty third by the Coats. I mean,
this is all. It's unbelievable. I mean that's why people look.
(24:55):
They see the movie say, well, that couldn't be that way.
Well there was that way. So I go to that
dressing room. I asked where Brandon's locker was, and they
told me where it was. I turned the corner and
I see him sitting in his locker. He's got blood
dripping off the end of his nose, he's real sweat,
he's real muddy because it rained that day. He sees
(25:17):
me in true Burlsworth style, he jumps to his feet,
comes right at me. We throw our arms around each other,
and I look at him and I say, Brandon, have
I told you I loved you lately? And he said, no, Coach,
you haven't, but I sure could use it today. And
I said, well, Brandon, I love you. We embraced one
(25:37):
more time and.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I left in a razorback. It's such a big deal
in this state. We have no proteins. I don't think
they could compete really with the Razorbacks. You know, there's
no second place to be in a Razorback. And I
(26:00):
think Brandon had the confidence. I mean I had the
confidence in him too, even though sometimes it's portrayed that
I was surprised and wasn't surprised. You talk about instant celebrity. Oh,
my goodness. You know here in town, he in Harrison.
You know, he'd come back into town. You know, we
go to Walmart or something, you know, and and never
(26:22):
did he never did he say to me, I don't
want to go now. You know. He was kind of
shy obviously, but he never tried to not go somewhere
in case somebody would see him. He would all, you know,
we'd go to Walmart or the ball field, or a
football game, or a baseball game, or our kids little
league game, our oldest little league game. Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
He just facts like he was one of one of
the normals.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And what a story you're hearing here about Brandon Burlsworth.
My goodness. He goes from walk on to second year
scholarshi and starter. That's crazy. In the SEC, which is
a semi professional football league. He's all SEC in ninety
seven and ninety eight. And in ninety eighty is also
all American. That's just an unbelievable progression, and all Americans
(27:15):
inscribed on those thick glasses. Now we know why he
wore them. When we come back more of the remarkable
story of Brandon Burlsworth here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the final portion
of our story of Brandon Burlsworth. Telling this story is
Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tice, and Brandon's older brother
and his wife, Marty and Vicky Burlsworth. Let's continue with
the story here again is Brandon's brother Marty.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
His senior year, we started getting calls from agents. That's
I thought I was really neat. I interviewed a lot
of agents and after a while a lot of them
flew into Harrison to meet from Pittsburgh and California, and
I meet some pretty big time agents. And he and
I talked about it, and he said, whyn't we do
it ourselves. I've not learned anything from them that's not
(28:24):
basically business one on one, and I've been in business
for a long time. If you if you want to
do that, Soul, I went through about a year long
process and became NFL certified, which was not easy. One
thing to have to accept you And I think most
of them are probably, well not most, at least half
of them are probably attorneys, you know, people like that.
(28:46):
I'm a photographer, you know, a studio photographer, so I
didn't know if I'd even get a shot at it.
But they took our money, so our money is as
good as anybody else, as I guess, the way.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
I look at it, got a phone call from from Indianapolis.
You know, tell me I was the nest member of
the Indianapolis coach.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
He laughs, Like the rest of us at the Drew
Carey comparisons, he prefers the ones the Colt use.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The scouting reports.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I'll say, like Steve mckinnitt, you like Stephen mckennitty.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So if you can get one another like that, we're
we're happy. We'll take all of the Steph mckenney's.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
We can get a lot of people say good things
like that, and that's all good, you know, but you know,
you've got to prove yourself still. And that's the way
I look at it.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
The way the Colts look at it is that Pearlsworth
is assumed to be starter.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Peyton Manning their quarterback needs protection for kind Burlsworth provided
for quarterback.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Flint Starner at Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Garlsworth says, it'll happen in time.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
I talk to the offensive line coach and he told me,
you know that they definitely expect me to play, you know,
right away, And you know, I think that they expect
me to start at some point, and I think it's
something that I'll have to you know, work into, you know,
through training camp.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Well, you know, we were really focusing, like you say,
on a defensive guy in that third round pick. But
Burlsworth was an offensive lineman who we had rated higher
than any of the defensive players that we had up there.
Our scouts liked him, our coaches liked him, and he
graded out real high at the Indie combine. So we
just felt like he was somebody that we couldn't pass
up at that point.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
What kinds of things does he do?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, he didn't allow this sack in the last
couple of years yet like that.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Well, he's very athletic. You know, he's got good feet,
he's got good skills, you know, athletic skills for a
big man. He's three three and nine pounds strong, had
one of the best scores as far as the lifting
the weights at the combine and all the other little
skill tests that they did that they did. He graded
out very highly. A great work ethic, smart, good kid.
(30:35):
You know, football is important to him, all those things.
He's he's already got his master's degree. So he's an
impressive young man.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And he looks like Drew carry too, huh.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I know, I know that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, we'll fast forward a little bit to the day
of the wreck. Okay, So I'm in Fadeville seeing some friends.
Stopped by the university to see Dean Weber and coach
Houston Nutt. At that time they were going to have it.
They wanted me to stay over for a big championship
(31:11):
celebration they were having for winn in the west of
the SEC and the ring ceremony. I couldn't do it.
I had to get back home. So I had left
and done a couple other things where it took off.
I got there's a little town out here called Carleton,
and back I came up on a long line of
cars sitting still, and I'm in this line of cars.
(31:33):
I'm sitting right beside Fults's Dairry, which is a mile
about a mile back from where the rector plays.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And I.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Was sitting there in the car and I'm thinking, thoughts
are going through my head about we had her upcoming banquet,
sports banquet, and I knew, you know, brand had made
all American. I thought, well, how can I utilize him
as part of this, you know, this celebration for us,
because I knew they were celebrating in Fedville. Well, I
was there an hour before they got this scene cleared.
(32:04):
Turned out it was a wreck. Came by, did not
recognize the car. And I get home and our principal
at the time was a man named Danny Gilbert. And
Danny coming said Burlsworth has died. And I said how
And he said, I said, I just left him in
Fedville not an hour ago. He said, he's died in
(32:27):
a car wreck. And then the light comes on you
were just there, and he said, I said, how'd it have?
You said? I don't know how it happened, but think
about it. It's Wednesday, He's on his way home take
his mama to church as he did on every Wednesday night.
Or they met it at a roadside park on Wednesday
(32:47):
and had devotionals and things like that, and so that
was important to Brandon, and he had left the ceremony early.
Family was that was really really important. So that night
when I got home, we got off the phone. My
wife's sitting there and I'm upset and I'm teared up
(33:09):
and things of this name. And I said, I can't.
She said, You've got to go to that house. I said,
I cannot go to that house. I said, I can't
do that. She said, you have to do it. So
I went. And I've never been involved in a scene
like that before in my life. And it was just
(33:29):
so sad. And course gloom came over the entire state
of Arkansas, especially Harrison. Everybody knew Brandon, everybody knew the story,
and so when the media people came into Harrison, there
was a lot of them, and Marty asked me to
(33:54):
talk with them, and so we gathered them all in
a room at the at the high school and no
one high school at the junior high at that time,
at the Junior High, and got him in a room
and I told him, I said, I know you've come
to cover this story. I know that some of you
will not are probably not believing the things you've heard
(34:16):
about this young man, I said, but here's the deal.
The family wants you to look everywhere you wanna look.
Everything will be an open book for you. Ask questions
you want to ask, Go see what you want to see,
and see if you can find anything that what's been
told is not true. They couldn't find anything, And so
(34:40):
then I spoke at the funeral. That was probably one
of the hardest things I've done in my lifetime.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
He's been gone longer than we had him, and see
my memories, my memories are not like that.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I think of what our boys have done over the years. Literally,
I mean, he wasn't even here then when they were.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
He was here twenty two years. But in our in
my mind, he's still twenty two. I mean, we see
him the the photographs that we do every day, We
talk about him every day, we we share him with people,
and he just once in a while it'll hit Marty
and I he's gone, you know, oh, you know, you
just that and that horrible grief that we had when
(35:27):
we found out the accident. In that first year, we
were just walking in mud and we decided that we
were either going to sink or swim. Because this was
absolutely taking our family down, and we just knew that
the Lord could take something horrible and make something good.
You know, Marty and I saw all the time, if
you took the faith out of Brandon's story, there's no
story cause it was absolutely based on everything. And our
(35:52):
fam foundation has been the same way.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I love talking about Bran. I love talking about Marty Vicky.
I remember, you know, and said, we're gonna, we're gonna
put this foundation together. You know, we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
In fact, our football camps, he and I talked about
doing those, having kids at NFL games, and it was
NFL games after his accident. I talked to coach Burrels
actually at the would have been Brandon's first game. We
were in the owner's box and.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
First thing we're gonna do, We're gonna have a football camp.
You're gonna run it, and I'm going I said, really, Yeah,
I said really, He said yeah, Mama says you going, Okay, yeah, missus.
Burrelsworth says that I'm doing it, And so I'm here
in the first camp we had. It was awful. It
was hot, it just rained, and we had hundreds of
kids out there and oh my gosh, and we did.
(36:45):
We've got it now where it's a fine tune machine,
but that first one was, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But those kids that come to those camps, you know,
of course they come to see the those razorbacks, and
they always come back.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Never been done before. I don't know if anyone else
has ever done it. Having similar to NFL where you
have kids attended game that wouldn't have that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
You know, they just keep coming back, you know, because
of Brandon.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
When we say what does it matter, I've got my
one simple answer is selfishly and I'll just admit it.
I don't want him forgotten ever ever, And to this
day it hurts my feelings if someone in why Only
or Nebraska doesn't know about him, that don't know who
that is. I don't like that. I got to fix that.
(37:42):
So that's what we're That's why we live it. I mean,
that's not why we live it. That's my internal motivation.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
And what a story you just heard. In my goodness,
the role faith played in his life. It was a
quiet faith, but it was there. It was the peril
of his life, and indeed he left that championship ring
ceremony earlier, and it's a big deal to win the
Western division of the SEC. To take his mom to
church and en route, well that's how he died. The
(38:12):
story of Brandon Birlesworth here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded every year for the most
outstanding Division one college football player who began his career
as a walk on. Previous recipients include Tampa Bay's quarterback
Baker Mayfield and Stetson Bennett of the La Rams. It's
(00:33):
named after Brandon Burlsworth, a truly remarkable person on and
off the field. Here to get us started with the
story is Tommy Tye, Brandon's high school coach. Take it away, Tommy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Brandon Burlsworth's the best person I ever met in my life.
My name is Tommy Tice. Then I was Brandon's high
school coach. I first came in to meet Brandon when
he was the seventh grader and he entered our program
and started his journey from there through the high school.
(01:07):
And I remember being called by the junior high coach
at that time, man named Inky Williams, and Inkey wanted
me to come look at this young man. He said,
he's really going to be something special. So I was
paying a little bit closer attention to Brandon as he
got to be a ninth grader, because he's one step
away from coming into our high school program. And I
looked at him, and Brandon was a great kid. Certainly
(01:30):
everybody was proud to see him, but I didn't see
anything special. I kind of thought that Coach Williams might
have been maybe in bibing in the spirits a little
bit when he made that evaluation, But he was right.
The thing that became very apparent to me about Brandon
(01:51):
was you weren't going to run him off. He was
going to be there every day. He was going to
be early, He's going to be one of the last
ones to leave, sometimes with tears in his eyes or
maybe your bloody nose, and sometimes maybe both. But he'd
be back the next day. And that told you an
awful lot about it, because we constantly told our kids,
(02:14):
if you stay, you'll play, Just stay, just dig in tough,
gritchy teeth, and you know it's all gonna be okay. Now,
his senior year he really blossomed into an outstanding player.
But you know, when you're around kids every day, you
(02:34):
don't notice them growing, you know. And by the time
I think he came in his senior year, he's probably
about six foot tall, maybe two hundred and fifteen two
hundred and twenty pounds. But that spring of his senior year,
after going through the season, after he'd made All State,
played in the high school All Star game, he was
(02:54):
about six two, two hundred and thirty five pounds, and
he was much much stronger. Again, never took a day off.
And one thing he did his senior year one of
his goals. And he was tremendous goal setter. You know,
we'd talk about goals and we'd tell him that goals
are only dreams unless you write them down and put
(03:16):
them someplace in your room where you can see him
every day. And he'd repeat that to me. And I
know I never want in his room, but I know
they were there somewhere. So one of his goals his
senior year was to beat me to work every morning.
And I get there pretty early, about six o'clock every morning,
(03:37):
and every morning, sometimes in the dark, sitting by the
door was Brandon. And every now and then he didn't
say a whole lot, but if I was late, he
might say sleep in the day, coach, and I'd say, Borlsworth,
don't quit your day job. You're not that funny. And
so his senior year we won the conference championship and
(04:01):
he was a not all like I said, an all
state player. He wanted to be a college player, and
he continued to work, continued to work, and that spring
he went to a couple of basically tryout situations at
Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and at Arkansas Tech and Russellville.
He comes back first. I get a call from the
coach at Arkadelphia and he said, when did you become
(04:23):
a liar? I said, I did not ever quit. He said, well,
you told me this Burlsworth kid was this tall thist, wait,
this strong, this fast? And he said, he's bigger, he's stronger,
he's faster. You know, are the Razorbacks not interested in him?
Because we don't want to offer him. If the Razorbacks are,
you know, are interested, I said, they're not interested. So
(04:45):
they were going to offer same thing from coach at
Arkansas Tech Brooks Hollisworth at the time, and h on Monday,
after he got back from those places, I called him
into the office and I was really excited that he
was going to get an offer tunity to play college football.
And I was telling him I said, man, this is great.
You're gonna get you has to play, continue your career playing.
(05:07):
You're going to help you mama out because I know
that financial situation. This is going to be a really
big deal for you. Well, quickly I figured out I'm
the only guy in the room it's excited. He's not excited.
He's sitting there and he's looking at the floor, and
he looks up at me. And this is one thing
(05:29):
that I learned about Brandon and all kids. Be careful
what you say to them because it may come back
at you at any time. And he told me, he said, Coach,
you told me and the rest of the team. It
didn't matter what anybody else said. It only mattered what
we thought. And I'm going, oh, I'm trapped, Coach. I
(05:53):
want to be a razorback and I'm going to be
a razorback. What are you going to do? I had
Danny Ford's number at the Universe and we knew each other,
and I called him and I said, please take one
more look at this kid. He's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster.
He said, I'll have Harold Horton as the heead of
recruiting it. I have Harold look at I said, no,
(06:13):
I want Harold look at Harold's Arey looked at him.
He's a verry really not as a favor, I'd like
for you to look at And after seeing the new
statistics and new little tapes that we'd done some things
with running through ropes and stuff like this, he said, Tommy,
we don't have these scholarships. We'll make him a preferred
walk on. I said, what's a preferred walk on? He said, nothing.
(06:36):
It just sounds good. You know, it's it's a walk
on situation. If anybody knows what a walk on is.
It's not a real good life. You get the hand
me down equipment. You may get a few reps, but
you ain't gonna get much, and you'll be a tackling dummy.
And you know, and you're already told them the beginning
you're not good enough, and the coaches are not really
(06:56):
wanting you because if you come and you make it,
it makes them look bad because they didn't recruit you
in the first blaze.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And you've been listening to Tommy Tice. The thing that
became apparent about Brandon. You couldn't run him off. He
wanted to be a razorback. That is, of course an
Arkansas razorback. In the SEC they don't have scholarships. He
was told that did not deter Brandon. More of this
remarkable story, the story of Brandon Burlsworth here on Our
(07:26):
American Story Lee Hubeib here and I'd like to encourage
you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts,
the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts.
Any story you missed or want to hear again can
be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our
(07:48):
American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or
anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these
great American stories coming. And we continue with our American
(08:11):
Stories and the story of Brandon Burlsworth. When we last
left off, Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tace, was telling
us about Brandon's career leading up to receiving preferred walk
on status at the University of Arkansas. Here to tell
us now about the start of Brandon's life. He's his
brother Marty and Marty's wife Vicky. Take it away, Marty.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Now, when Brandon was born, you know that's kind of
that's really strange for me. You know, I'm fifteen at
the time, would turn sixteen a couple of months. But
having a baby in the house. Wow, you know, fifteen
year old, I'm trying to be cool. You know, I
don't know what to do with this. He's not going
with me. Yeah, I'm not taking him anywhere. That's not cool.
I'm not hanging out with a two year old or whatever,
(08:57):
a three year old. But he was fun when he
got a little bit older, when he got out of
the baby baby stage, and I could mess with him,
have him do silly things and play pretend baseball in
the living room and hav him sliding headfirst on the
carpet and all kinds of things like that. It was,
you know, a lot. It was a lot of fun.
But you know, as a kid eight or nine, ten
(09:21):
years old, there was no indication that you were looking
at a future All American, at an NFL player, nothing,
Just the same as everybody else trying to figure it out.
Just a normal kid loved sports. He didn't have any
choice because you know, he's going to be with me.
You know that we're gonna be balling in some way,
(09:42):
whether it's football, basketball, baseball, really into baseball, but you know,
he was just like everybody else, loved to play ball.
I coached baseball junior high age. Brandon was eight or
nine years old, ten years old. He wanted to come
out and be at practice. So I'd always bring to
baseball practice with my t team. The angry is no more.
He just shagballs and you know, just helped me out.
(10:04):
And he wasn't very good. He just wasn't naturally gifted.
It certainly didn't show it at that age, but I
knew that we will run sprints at the end of practice,
and he was kind of chunky. I always felt like
he was kind of chunky. Always felt like, you, hey man,
you need to get after here he is. You know,
you look back on him, you say, the kid's nine
or ten years old, and you're trying to make him
(10:26):
act like he's sixteen or seventeen, you know. But he'd
run sprints with and always did. But I'm trying to
get some that weight off of him. And it wasn't
like he's an unhealthy, you know, fat kid. He wasn't
just kind of chunky, and he'd like to lay around
watch at TV. He wore out a Star Wars VHS.
I don't know how many times I'd come over to
the house as he's watching that again. But when he
(10:49):
got older, he got thirteen years old. Now he's old
enough to be in our league, own our team, and
so he was playing on my team, and at that
time told him, all right, here's the deal. There's rules
in the league. And I'm saying that much more formal
than he and I talked about it. But rules in
the league. Everybody bats once, regardless of how good or
bad or Everybody bats at least once during the game
(11:12):
and plays two innings in the field. That's the rules
that does not apply to you, because this is family.
If I want to bench you and not play at all,
that's what I'm going to do. And the only reason
I said that is we're going to set a goal.
I want you to lose two pounds. Every week. You
lose those two pounds, we're going to go. You're gonna play.
He lost those two pounds every week all season long.
(11:34):
Never felt put him on scales. He's lost those two pounds.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The Burlsworth family is a very small family. There was
very few of us, and so we were together all
the time, and so Brandon lived with his mom. Dad
was not around that much. An alcoholic. He had kind
of battled it, had gotten control of it, but he
still wasn't in the picture much. You know, we'd loved
(12:01):
him and try to keep him around as much. But
that's why he and Marty, I think, developed such a bond.
Brandon and Marty were together a lot. Whatever we were doing,
we would take him with us, you know, mom was
working or Brandon just wanted to be with us. He
really looked up to Marty. A lot of people would
say that Marty was the father figure, and we don't
like saying that because he d had a dad that
(12:22):
had some issues but was still the dad. But they
were just really really tight brothers.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And I didn't. I wasn't very fond of being called dad. So, oh,
your boys played a good game. It's not my son.
And that happened a lot. Even happened senior year in
high school, which was strange.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It happened last week.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah I did, didn't. It happened a lot, and it's
still happened, and now it makes a little more sense.
Maybe you know, years go by it, But when we're
when we've got like a two year older and and
I'm being congratulated on my son, who's my brother, you know,
I was. I was crazy about that. Finally, just like
flying whatever.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
They weren't really really close. It was just a tight
bond the whole family. We called ourselves the Inner Circle
because we just all knew that we had each other's
back and that whatever happened, it always seemed to be
the same little core people. Anyway, he was fun to
be run now. He wouldn't talk much. If he wanted
to start something, he'd get Marty to start it, not him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Tremendous attitude. Everything was yes, sir, no sir. If you
wanted any more words out of his mouth, you're going
to have to drag him out most of the time.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
But he wasn't holder than now. He set a really
good example. Most of the things that Brannan did, Marty
and I found out after the accident.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
One of my favorite stories is Humbledness. Okay, Brandon gets
so silly, gosh awful looking glasses and he's at the
house one day and while he was Blast said, what
are you doing getting those glasses? You look like Drew Carey,
you know, let's see. She said, Oh, coach, they just
(14:03):
feel good on my head. I said, really, I said,
let me look at them. Well, we talked a little
bit about his goal setting. Okay, so one of his
goals the senior year was to be all American. If
you look at them, nosepiece right here in the middle,
it's etched all American. He kept it right in front
(14:23):
of his eyes the whole time he was practicing and playing.
And I said, I know why you got those glasses.
You did it to get publicity. Oh no, coach, No, No,
that's no. I wouldn't do that. I don't you know me.
I don't want to draw attention to myself. I wouldn't
do that. And that's when I figured it out. Right
there it was. I tossed him back to him. I said,
(14:45):
I understand where this is at. That's the way.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
It was one of my favorite stories about Brendan in
his college years. And we didn't know this till after
the accident passed away, but a couple of the Razorbacks called.
They were telling us that they had been gone to
his room and Brandon was in his room study in
which he did. He was, you know, as well as
a great football player, he was a great scholar, but
(15:10):
he was recopying his notes, which he did all the time.
His writing was tiny, but very pretty writing he just had.
But he was so from the day's notes. He was
recopying them. And the razorback said, girls, how do you
do it? Great athlete, great scholar, you're just a good person.
(15:32):
What are you doing? What's your secret? And they said
Brandon never looked up that. He reached his hand up,
grabbed his Bible from a shelf that's there, pointed at him,
didn't say a word, put it back in the on
his shelf, and went on. Never said a word, but
(15:53):
he said everything, and that Marty and I are both driven, hard,
driven people. We want Brandon's story to be known everywhere.
But Brandon had it figured out. He knew where his
success was and what had gotten him there.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He ended my playing career. In my days as a coach,
every now and then I would ask for a helmet
for one of the younger kids and show him how
to perform a technique. So I was going to show
this sophomore how to perform this defensive line technique where
he would engage a blocker and he get off a
blocker and make a tackle. So give me that helmet.
I put that helmet on and I turned around, look
(16:32):
and he was in front of the line. And usually
I performed these techniques on sophomores and they would always
let me win. So I knew there wasn't no way
to get out of this, you know. And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
brand will probably you know, he'll probably take it easy
on me.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
When we came together, bells are ringing and birds are sinking,
and I knew I had to get up, and I
got up, ripped that helmet, off, through it to that
young man. I got it from my turn to Burl's
word and I said, now, don't you ever make me
have to show you how to do that again? And
I went off. I said, okay, everybody get a drink,
(17:13):
and oh man, you know one system coach comes over
and said, you all right, yay, I'm good after practice.
To Brandon's credit, he did come by and check on me,
but he put me He put those into my playing career.
Never did that again, so it was a good thing.
My wife was tickled to hear it that I wouldn't
play anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And you're listening to Brandon, Burlsworth's brother Marty and Marty's
wife Vicky talk about the young Brandon and how he matured,
and Marty ended up being sort of a dad like
or fatherlike figure. I didn't like being called that, but
there was adversity in young Brandon's life, adversity he overcame.
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
(17:54):
Brandon Burlsworth here on our American stories. And we continue
with our American stories and the story of Brandon Burlsworth.
Telling the story is Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tace,
(18:17):
and Brandon's older brother and his wife, Marty and Vicki Burlsworth.
Let's continue with the story here again is Marty.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Every boy growing up myself included, Oh, to be a razorback,
that'd be like saying I want to be Kansas City chief. Well,
this is how it happened. Like Coach Tyson was saying
he had scholarship offers from some smaller schools that well
(18:53):
that wanted him. You know, on smaller schools. I learned
the Beach one school, you get a scholarship. It's covered
the smaller called Division two. There's very few full scholarships,
they're partial scholarships. We had a coach he called me back, Hey,
I got him books. Oh that's good. Coach called back
a week or so, I got I got it. No
(19:15):
more room covered. So finally had a complete full ride
for a division. A friend of mine said, call Harold
Horton at the university. That's what we call it, the
university in this state. You say the university, No one
says of Arkansas the university. That's all you need to know.
So I called Harold Horton, the recruiting coordinator. They didn't
(19:39):
call us, but I called him. Coach Hortan says, yeah,
come on over for the game. So we came over
for a recruiting visit with all the other players that
were in that probably didn't call. They called them. And
I can remember being in the north end zone patio
area that's all been torn down and rebuilt now, but
there's a patio area that look down on the field
(20:01):
right where the players come out. Standing there with Brandon,
We're looking down the offensive lineman come out for Arkansas
and I'm looking down at him, looking at him, and
you can tell he's like, this is it? I said,
what do you think he is?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
M M?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's you know, big words there for Brandon, it's a
lot of talk. So when these other schools are calling
and saying we've got his books, we've got him, you know,
I knew that probably not gonna happen, cause he wanted
to be a Razor back. So continued over the winter,
we'd go back over for visits. During basketball season, Coach
Horton started to warm up a little bit to 'em. Yeah,
(20:41):
you know, I'm tracking how many scholarships are still available.
So Brandon and I were going over to a basketball game.
Coach Horton told us where to find him. So Brandon
h I said, Okay, this is what we're gonna do.
I said, we get over there, I want you to
stand as tall as you can, you know, stand close
to him, stand up good and tall. He said, okay,
so we had to, you know, we in this out.
So Brandon is standing. I'd love to see a video
(21:03):
or that, cause it have to be funny. And I'm
talking to Coach Horton and brand is standing right beside him,
and he and cause I've been telling him he's still growing,
and he's still grown. He's just seventeen years old. Coach
Hohorton looks up at Brandler said, and he said, well,
he's growing, is and he sa, yeah, he is, Coach,
he's still growing, you know. So we're trying to We're
still working it. So things like that on and on
over the months. Talk to Coach Hohorton. One time, we
(21:24):
getting right down to the wire. Can we get a scholarship? Coach,
We're just not gonna. I don't think we're gonna be
able to do that. And I said, coach, he what
he wants is to have his name announced that graduation,
walk across that stage with a scol athletic scholarship to
the University of Arkansas. He said, well, it's it. It's pride.
(21:44):
It's pride is And I said, yeap, pride in a
good way. He said, no, good way. And that's the
time that he said those words. I'll ever forget. On
the phone, Coach Horton says, well, we're gonna make this work.
I've talked to some coaches at these other schools that
he's gonna pass on. But when he gets here, if
it doesn't work, he'll be able to go to those
(22:05):
But when he gets here, we'll know, and he'll know.
I said, okay, coach, but yeah, but he's not going down,
which you know, to the lower level. He said, when
he gets here, we'll know he repeats it, and he'll know.
I said, coach, listen, he's not going down. He said,
(22:27):
all right. I said, he'll show you, and he did
a welcome. That's not enough. I remember calling after that
first year, after January, after that first season, which he
was just scouted team red shirt, he dressed for a
couple of games, you know, which was cool for us.
I took pictures of him with his jersey on with
(22:47):
his name on the back. I'm like, done, that's awesome.
Hey man, I've got this for your kids. One day
you can show them this. No, that ain't enough now.
I didn't think it was there. But if that would
have been me, yeah, I'm probably pretty happy right now.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
If I don't get a play, I've made the team.
I've got a locker, got my name on the back
of a razorback jersey. This is you know, forever. But
that just wasn't enough for him, nor should it have been,
and so he just kept working forward that and he
showed up over at the university in August for to
a day's and they still were at that time to
(23:25):
a day's about three hundred pounds even over something. You know,
it's been exaggerated in places, but anyways, way too heavy.
And August in Arkansas on the old astro turf, it
was borderline dangerous for him. You know, his face was red,
but you know, he's not gonna quit. He's gonna keep going.
But they took all that weight off of him pretty
(23:47):
quickly because they saw the person that had better yet,
the personality had that this guy's gonna get it done,
that he's not gonna quit, that he's gonna go hard
every day. And the coaches stayed around after practice to
work with him, and then he got coach Bender and
it was all great from there.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Did I think he was ever going to play, No,
But I knew he would be there. When he was
a junior, you know, they played in Fedville, played to
Auburn and they lost, and I'd never been to the
dressing room before, but I felt like I had to
go that day. I knew that he would be terribly upset.
Of course, by this time, he's on scholarship and he's
(24:33):
already been all SEC academic, you know, at this time,
and he makes all SEC two years and then he
goes on to All American. The last game he played
was in the Citrus Bowl against Tom Brady Michigan. I
think he's drafted sixty third by the Coats. I mean,
this is all. It's unbelievable. I mean that's why people look.
(24:55):
They see the movie say, well, that couldn't be that way.
Well there was that way. So I go to that
dressing room. I asked where Brandon's locker was, and they
told me where it was. I turned the corner and
I see him sitting in his locker. He's got blood
dripping off the end of his nose, he's real sweat,
he's real muddy because it rained that day. He sees
(25:17):
me in true Burlsworth style, he jumps to his feet,
comes right at me. We throw our arms around each other,
and I look at him and I say, Brandon, have
I told you I loved you lately? And he said, no, Coach,
you haven't, but I sure could use it today. And
I said, well, Brandon, I love you. We embraced one
(25:37):
more time and.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I left in a razorback. It's such a big deal
in this state. We have no proteins. I don't think
they could compete really with the Razorbacks. You know, there's
no second place to be in a Razorback. And I
(26:00):
think Brandon had the confidence. I mean I had the
confidence in him too, even though sometimes it's portrayed that
I was surprised and wasn't surprised. You talk about instant celebrity. Oh,
my goodness. You know here in town, he in Harrison.
You know, he'd come back into town. You know, we
go to Walmart or something, you know, and and never
(26:22):
did he never did he say to me, I don't
want to go now. You know. He was kind of
shy obviously, but he never tried to not go somewhere
in case somebody would see him. He would all, you know,
we'd go to Walmart or the ball field, or a
football game, or a baseball game, or our kids little
league game, our oldest little league game. Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
He just facts like he was one of one of
the normals.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And what a story you're hearing here about Brandon Burlsworth.
My goodness. He goes from walk on to second year
scholarshi and starter. That's crazy. In the SEC, which is
a semi professional football league. He's all SEC in ninety
seven and ninety eight. And in ninety eighty is also
all American. That's just an unbelievable progression, and all Americans
(27:15):
inscribed on those thick glasses. Now we know why he
wore them. When we come back more of the remarkable
story of Brandon Burlsworth here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the final portion
of our story of Brandon Burlsworth. Telling this story is
Brandon's high school coach, Tommy Tice, and Brandon's older brother
and his wife, Marty and Vicky Burlsworth. Let's continue with
the story here again is Brandon's brother Marty.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
His senior year, we started getting calls from agents. That's
I thought I was really neat. I interviewed a lot
of agents and after a while a lot of them
flew into Harrison to meet from Pittsburgh and California, and
I meet some pretty big time agents. And he and
I talked about it, and he said, whyn't we do
it ourselves. I've not learned anything from them that's not
(28:24):
basically business one on one, and I've been in business
for a long time. If you if you want to
do that, Soul, I went through about a year long
process and became NFL certified, which was not easy. One
thing to have to accept you And I think most
of them are probably, well not most, at least half
of them are probably attorneys, you know, people like that.
(28:46):
I'm a photographer, you know, a studio photographer, so I
didn't know if I'd even get a shot at it.
But they took our money, so our money is as
good as anybody else, as I guess, the way.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
I look at it, got a phone call from from Indianapolis.
You know, tell me I was the nest member of
the Indianapolis coach.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
He laughs, Like the rest of us at the Drew
Carey comparisons, he prefers the ones the Colt use.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The scouting reports.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I'll say, like Steve mckinnitt, you like Stephen mckennitty.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So if you can get one another like that, we're
we're happy. We'll take all of the Steph mckenney's.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
We can get a lot of people say good things
like that, and that's all good, you know, but you know,
you've got to prove yourself still. And that's the way
I look at it.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
The way the Colts look at it is that Pearlsworth
is assumed to be starter.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Peyton Manning their quarterback needs protection for kind Burlsworth provided
for quarterback.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Flint Starner at Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Garlsworth says, it'll happen in time.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
I talk to the offensive line coach and he told me,
you know that they definitely expect me to play, you know,
right away, And you know, I think that they expect
me to start at some point, and I think it's
something that I'll have to you know, work into, you know,
through training camp.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Well, you know, we were really focusing, like you say,
on a defensive guy in that third round pick. But
Burlsworth was an offensive lineman who we had rated higher
than any of the defensive players that we had up there.
Our scouts liked him, our coaches liked him, and he
graded out real high at the Indie combine. So we
just felt like he was somebody that we couldn't pass
up at that point.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
What kinds of things does he do?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, he didn't allow this sack in the last
couple of years yet like that.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Well, he's very athletic. You know, he's got good feet,
he's got good skills, you know, athletic skills for a
big man. He's three three and nine pounds strong, had
one of the best scores as far as the lifting
the weights at the combine and all the other little
skill tests that they did that they did. He graded
out very highly. A great work ethic, smart, good kid.
(30:35):
You know, football is important to him, all those things.
He's he's already got his master's degree. So he's an
impressive young man.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And he looks like Drew carry too, huh.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I know, I know that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, we'll fast forward a little bit to the day
of the wreck. Okay, So I'm in Fadeville seeing some friends.
Stopped by the university to see Dean Weber and coach
Houston Nutt. At that time they were going to have it.
They wanted me to stay over for a big championship
(31:11):
celebration they were having for winn in the west of
the SEC and the ring ceremony. I couldn't do it.
I had to get back home. So I had left
and done a couple other things where it took off.
I got there's a little town out here called Carleton,
and back I came up on a long line of
cars sitting still, and I'm in this line of cars.
(31:33):
I'm sitting right beside Fults's Dairry, which is a mile
about a mile back from where the rector plays.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And I.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Was sitting there in the car and I'm thinking, thoughts
are going through my head about we had her upcoming banquet,
sports banquet, and I knew, you know, brand had made
all American. I thought, well, how can I utilize him
as part of this, you know, this celebration for us,
because I knew they were celebrating in Fedville. Well, I
was there an hour before they got this scene cleared.
(32:04):
Turned out it was a wreck. Came by, did not
recognize the car. And I get home and our principal
at the time was a man named Danny Gilbert. And
Danny coming said Burlsworth has died. And I said how
And he said, I said, I just left him in
Fedville not an hour ago. He said, he's died in
(32:27):
a car wreck. And then the light comes on you
were just there, and he said, I said, how'd it have?
You said? I don't know how it happened, but think
about it. It's Wednesday, He's on his way home take
his mama to church as he did on every Wednesday night.
Or they met it at a roadside park on Wednesday
(32:47):
and had devotionals and things like that, and so that
was important to Brandon, and he had left the ceremony early.
Family was that was really really important. So that night
when I got home, we got off the phone. My
wife's sitting there and I'm upset and I'm teared up
(33:09):
and things of this name. And I said, I can't.
She said, You've got to go to that house. I said,
I cannot go to that house. I said, I can't
do that. She said, you have to do it. So
I went. And I've never been involved in a scene
like that before in my life. And it was just
(33:29):
so sad. And course gloom came over the entire state
of Arkansas, especially Harrison. Everybody knew Brandon, everybody knew the story,
and so when the media people came into Harrison, there
was a lot of them, and Marty asked me to
(33:54):
talk with them, and so we gathered them all in
a room at the at the high school and no
one high school at the junior high at that time,
at the Junior High, and got him in a room
and I told him, I said, I know you've come
to cover this story. I know that some of you
will not are probably not believing the things you've heard
(34:16):
about this young man, I said, but here's the deal.
The family wants you to look everywhere you wanna look.
Everything will be an open book for you. Ask questions
you want to ask, Go see what you want to see,
and see if you can find anything that what's been
told is not true. They couldn't find anything, And so
(34:40):
then I spoke at the funeral. That was probably one
of the hardest things I've done in my lifetime.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
He's been gone longer than we had him, and see
my memories, my memories are not like that.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I think of what our boys have done over the years. Literally,
I mean, he wasn't even here then when they were.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
He was here twenty two years. But in our in
my mind, he's still twenty two. I mean, we see
him the the photographs that we do every day, We
talk about him every day, we we share him with people,
and he just once in a while it'll hit Marty
and I he's gone, you know, oh, you know, you
just that and that horrible grief that we had when
(35:27):
we found out the accident. In that first year, we
were just walking in mud and we decided that we
were either going to sink or swim. Because this was
absolutely taking our family down, and we just knew that
the Lord could take something horrible and make something good.
You know, Marty and I saw all the time, if
you took the faith out of Brandon's story, there's no
story cause it was absolutely based on everything. And our
(35:52):
fam foundation has been the same way.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I love talking about Bran. I love talking about Marty Vicky.
I remember, you know, and said, we're gonna, we're gonna
put this foundation together. You know, we're gonna do this.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
In fact, our football camps, he and I talked about
doing those, having kids at NFL games, and it was
NFL games after his accident. I talked to coach Burrels
actually at the would have been Brandon's first game. We
were in the owner's box and.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
First thing we're gonna do, We're gonna have a football camp.
You're gonna run it, and I'm going I said, really, Yeah,
I said really, He said yeah, Mama says you going, Okay, yeah, missus.
Burrelsworth says that I'm doing it, And so I'm here
in the first camp we had. It was awful. It
was hot, it just rained, and we had hundreds of
kids out there and oh my gosh, and we did.
(36:45):
We've got it now where it's a fine tune machine,
but that first one was, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But those kids that come to those camps, you know,
of course they come to see the those razorbacks, and
they always come back.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Never been done before. I don't know if anyone else
has ever done it. Having similar to NFL where you
have kids attended game that wouldn't have that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
You know, they just keep coming back, you know, because
of Brandon.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
When we say what does it matter, I've got my
one simple answer is selfishly and I'll just admit it.
I don't want him forgotten ever ever, And to this
day it hurts my feelings if someone in why Only
or Nebraska doesn't know about him, that don't know who
that is. I don't like that. I got to fix that.
(37:42):
So that's what we're That's why we live it. I mean,
that's not why we live it. That's my internal motivation.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
And what a story you just heard. In my goodness,
the role faith played in his life. It was a
quiet faith, but it was there. It was the peril
of his life, and indeed he left that championship ring
ceremony earlier, and it's a big deal to win the
Western division of the SEC. To take his mom to
church and en route, well that's how he died. The
(38:12):
story of Brandon Birlesworth here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com