November 6, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Brandon Burlsworth walked on at The University of Arkansas with little chance of ever securing a starting job, let alone a scholarship... and All-SEC, All-American honors. Here is the story of the man for whom the national award for the best walk-on player is named.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people who search for the Our American Stories podcast go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded every year for
the most outstanding Division one college football player who began
(00:30):
his career as a walk on. Previous recipients include Tampa
Bay's quarterback Baker Mayfield and Stetson Bennett of the La Rams.
It's 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 (00:50):
Brandon Burlsworth's the best person I ever met in my life.
My name is Tommy Tye, and 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.
(01:13):
And I remember being called by the junior high coach
at that time, men 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
(01:36):
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
(01:57):
was you weren't going to run him off. He was
gonna be there every day, he was gonna be early,
he's gonna 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
(02:17):
we constantly told our kids, 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 don't notice them growing,
(02:42):
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 about six two,
two hundred and thirty five pounds, and he was much
(03:06):
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 them someplace
in your room where you can see him every day.
And he'd repeat that to me. And I know I
(03:27):
never want 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, and every morning,
sometimes in the dark, sitting by the door was Brandon,
(03:49):
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 jail. You're not that funny. And so his senior
year we won the conference championship and he was an
all like I said, an All state player. He wanted
to be a college player, and he continued to work,
(04:12):
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 in Russellville. He comes back first,
I get a call from the coach at Arkadelphia and
he said, when did you become a liar? I said,
I did not ever quit. He said, well, you told
(04:33):
me this Burlsworth kid was this tallst plate, this strong,
this fast. And he said, he's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster.
You know, the razorbacks not interested to him because we
don't want to offer him. If the razorbacks are, you know,
are interested, I said, they're not interested. So they were
going to offer same thing from coach at Arkansas Tech,
Brooks Sollisworth at the time, and h on Monday after
(04:58):
he got back from those places, called him into the
office and I was really excited that he was going
to get an opportunity 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.
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
(05:22):
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
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,
(05:45):
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
want to be a razorback and I'm gonna be a razorback.
What are you gonna do? I had Danny Ford's number
at the university and we knew each other, and I
(06:08):
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 head of recruiting. The
time I have Harold. Look at I said, non on, Harold,
look at Haroldserry looked at him. He's alreay really out
as a favor I'd like for you to look at
And after seeing the new statistics and new little tapes
(06:28):
that we'd done some things with him, running through ropes
and stuff like this, he said, Tommy, we don't have
the scholarships. We'll make him a preferred walk on. I said,
what's a preferred walk on? He said nothing. 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.
(06:52):
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.
And the coaches are not really wanting you because if
you come and you make it, it makes them look
bad because they didn't recruit you in the first place.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
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
(07:31):
American Story. This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Consider making a tax deductible donation to our
American Stories. Go to our American Stories dot com. Give
(07:52):
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot com.
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
of Brandon Burlsworth. When we last left off, Brandon's high
(08:16):
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):
Not 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.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
A couple of months.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
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, three year old. But he was fun
when he got a little bit older, when he you know,
got out of the baby baby stage and I could
(09:04):
mess with him, have him do silly things and play
pretend baseball in the living room and having him sliding
headfirst on the carpet and all kinds of things like that.
It was you know, it was a lot. It was
a lot of fun. But uh, you know, as a
kid eight or nine, ten years old, there was no
indication that you were looking at a future All American,
(09:25):
at an NFL player, nothing, Just the same as everybody
else trying to figure it out. Just a normal kid
loved sports. He shouldn't have any choice, cause you know,
he's gonna be with me. You know that we're gonna
be balling in some way, whether it's football, basketball, baseball,
really into baseball. But you know, he was just like
(09:47):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Wasn't my team. The angry is no more.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He just shagballs and you know, just helped me out.
And and he wasn't very good. He just wasn't naturally gifted.
It certainly didn't show it at that age. But uh,
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 it, you said, the
(10:22):
kid's nine or ten years old, and you're trying to
make him act like he's sixteen or seventeen.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
But he would run sprints, was and always did. But
I was 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 Uh, he'd like
to lay around watch the TV. H he wore out
a Star Wars VHS. I don't know how many times
I'd come over to the house as watching that again.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
But when he got older, he got thirteen years old.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Now he's old enough to be in our league, own
our team, and so he was playing on my team,
and UH, 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 baps at least once
during the game, and plays two innings in the field.
(11:14):
That's rules that does not apply to you, because this
is family. If I want to bench you 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, that we're going to go.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
You're gonna play.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
He lost those two pounds every week all season long.
Never felt put him on scales. He's lost those two pounds.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
The Birlsworth family is a very small family. There's 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
picture much. You know, we loved him and try to
(12:02):
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 had some
(12:22):
issues but was still the dad. But they were just
really really tight brothers.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I wasn't very fond of being called dad. So, oh,
your boys played a good game.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
It's not my son.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And that happened a lot. Even happened senior year in
high school, which was strange.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
It happened last week.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah I did, didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It happened a lot, and it's still happened, and now
it makes a little more sense.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Maybe you know, here's go by of it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But when we're when we've got like a two year
older and I'm being congratulated on my son, who's my brother,
you know, I was.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I was crazy about that. Finally, just like flying whatever.
Speaker 5 (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 around 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 5 (13:31):
But he wasn't holder than now. He set a really
good example. Most of the things that Brandon did, Marty
and I found out after the accident.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
One of my favorite stories is humbleness. 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?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
You look like Drew Carrey. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Let's see. She said, Oh, coach, they just 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 of his
(14:23):
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, 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, I understand
(14:46):
where this is at. That's the way.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
It was one of my favorite stories about Brunning in
his college years. And we didn't know this till after
the accident passed away, but a couple of the Razorbacks
called 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 he
(15:11):
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.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Do you what are you doing?
Speaker 5 (15:33):
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 he said everything, and that
(15:58):
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, show him how to
perform a technique.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So I was going to.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Show this sophomore how to perform this defensive line technique
where he would engage a blocker and hen get off
a blocker and make a tackle, So give me that helmet.
I put that helmet on and I turned around look
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
(16:46):
to get out of this, you know, And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
brand will probably you know, he'll probably.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Take it easy on me.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
No.
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 got up, ripped that helmet off, through it to
that young man. I got it from my turn to
Burlsworth 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 come over
and said you all right, Yeah, I'm good after practice.
To Brandon's credit, he did come by and check on me,
but he put me put that was in 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, and.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
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
her 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 boy
(18:53):
I wanted to, 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 Horton 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 m M. That's you know,
big words there for Brandon. It's a lot of talk.
(20:21):
So when these other schools are calling and saying we've
got him books, we got him, you know, I knew
that probably not gonna happen, cause he wanted to be
a razor back.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
So continued.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Over the winter, we'd go back over for visits. During
basketball season, Coach Horton started to warm up a little
bit to him. Yeah, you know, I'm cracking how many
scholarships are still available. So Brandon and I were going
over to the basketball game. Coach Hoorton told us where
to find him. To brand H, I said, okay, this
is what we're gonna do. I said, we get over there.
(20:53):
I want you to stand as tall as you can,
you know, stand close to him and stand up good
and tall. He said, okay, So we had to, you know,
we playing this out. So brand is staying there. I'd
love to see a video 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, He's still grown.
He's just seventeen years old. Coach Whorton looks up at
Brandlos and me. He said, well, he's growing is and
(21:15):
I said, yeah, he his 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 Horton one time, we 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
(21:35):
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. It's pride is
And I said, yep, 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 talked to some coaches
(21:57):
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 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.
(22:18):
He repeats it and he'll know. I said, coach, listen,
he's not going down. He said, all right. I said,
he'll show you, and he did a walk on him.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
That's not enough.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I remember calling after that first year, after January, after
that first season, which he was just scout team red shirt,
he dressed for a couple of games, you know, which is.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Cool for us.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I took pictures of him with his jersey on with
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.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Now. I didn't think it was either.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
But if that would have been me, yeah, I'm uh,
I'm probably pretty happy right now.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
If I don't get a play, okay, 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 for that and we
showed up over at the University in August for to
a day's and they still were at that time to
(23:26):
a day's about three hundred pounds even over something. You know,
it's been exaggerated in places, but anyway, it's way too heavy.
And August in Arkansas on the old astro turf, it
was borderline dangerous for him. You know, his face was
the red. But you know, he's not gonna quit. He's
gonna keep going. But they took all that weight off
(23:46):
of him pretty 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.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Hard every day.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
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
(24:34):
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, said, 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's rained that day. He sees me.
(25:17):
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
more time and I left.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
In a razorback.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
It's such a big deal in this state. We have
no proteins. I don't think they could compete really with racebacks.
You know, there's no second place to be in a razorback.
And I think Brandon had the confidence. I mean I
(26:04):
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. Here, he come back into town, we
go to Walmart or something, you know, and and never
did he never did he say to me, I don't
(26:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
He would all you know, we'd go.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
He just facts like he was one of one of
the normal.
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
scholar 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 eight he is
also all American. That's just an unbelievable progression. And all
(27:15):
American was 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,
(27:37):
and 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, which
I thought I was really neat. I interviewed a lot
of agents, and after a while a lot of them
flew into Harrison. I meet from Pittsburgh and California, and
I meet some pretty big time agents and and I
talked about it, and he said, why we do it ourselves.
(28:21):
I've not learned anything from them that's not basically business
one on one, and I've been in business for a
long time. If you if you want to do that,
so 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
(28:43):
are probably attorneys, you know, people like that. I'm a photographer,
you know, a studio photographer, so I didn't know if
I'd even get a shot at it.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
But they took their.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Money, so our money is as good as anybody else's,
I guess the way.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
I look at it.
Speaker 6 (28:55):
And got a phone call from from Indianapolis. You know,
tell me I was a new member of the Indianapolis coach.
Speaker 7 (29:04):
He laughs, Like the rest of us at the Drew
Carey comparisons, he prefers the ones the colt use.
Speaker 8 (29:08):
The scouting reports.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I'll say, like Steve McKinney, you like Steve mckennity, So
if you can get one another like that, we're we're happy.
Speaker 8 (29:16):
We'll take all of the Stephen mckenny's.
Speaker 6 (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 7 (29:24):
The way the Colts look at it is that Pearlsworth
is assumed to be starter. Peyton Manning their quarterback needs
protection for Kyd Burlsworth provided for quarterback Flint Starner at Arkansas.
Gurlsworth says, it'll happen in time.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I'll talk for 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 8 (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.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Things does he do?
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I mean he didn't allow the sack in the last
couple of years yet like that.
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Well, he's very athletic. You know, he's got good feet,
he he's got good skills, you know, athletic skills for
a big man. He's three three and 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. 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 4 (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
pri 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 celebration they were having for one in the
(31:12):
west of the SEC and the ring ceremony.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I had to get back home. So I had left
and done a couple of 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.
I'm sitting right beside Fults's dairry, which is a mile
(31:36):
about a mile back from where the rector plays. And
I 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
(31:57):
for us, because I knew they were celebrating in Fedville. Well,
I was there an hour before they got this scene cleared.
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 men named Danny Gilbert. And
Danny coming said Burlsworth has died. And I said how
(32:21):
And he said, I said, I just left him in
Fedville not an hour ago. He said, he's died in
a car wreck. And then the light comes on. You
were just there, and he said, I said, how'd it have?
Speaker 4 (32:35):
You said?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
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 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,
(33:02):
when I got home, we got off the phone and
my wife's sitting there and I'm upset and I'm teared
up 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
(33:23):
I went and I've never been involved in a scene
like that before in my life. And it was just
so sad, And of course gloom came over the entire
state of Arkansas, especially Harrison. Everybody knew Brandon, everybody knew
the story, and so when the.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Media people.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Came into Harrison, there was a lot of them, and
Marty asked me to talk with them, and so we
gathered them all in a room at the at the
high school and no one time I school at the
Junior High at that time at the Junior High and
got him in a room and I told him, I said,
(34:09):
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 about this young man. I said,
but here's the deal. The family wants you to look
everywhere you want to look. Everything will be an open
book for you. Ask questions you want to ask, Go
(34:30):
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 then I spoke at
the funeral. That was probably one of the hardest things
I've done in my lifetime.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
He's been gone longer than we had him.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Memories, my memories are not like that. I think of
what our boys have done.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Over the years. Literally, I mean, he wasn't even here
then when they were.
Speaker 5 (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 photographs that we do every day, We talk
about him every day, we share him with people, and
he just once in a while it'll hit Marty and
I he's gone, you know, you know, you just and
(35:25):
that horrible grief that we had when 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
(35:45):
faith out of Brandon's story, there's no story because it
was absolutely based on everything. And our foundation has been
the same way.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I love talking about Bran, I love talking about Marty
VICKI I remember, you know, and so 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 what would have been Brandon's first game.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
We were in the owner's box.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And first thing we're gona 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're going. Okay, yeah, missus.
Burlsworth says that I'm doing it. And so I'm here
in the first camp we had.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
It was awful.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
It was hot, it just rained, and we had hundreds
of kids out there and oh my gosh, and we did.
We've got it now where it's a fine tune machine,
but that first one was, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But those kids that come to those camps, you know,
of course they come to see 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 (37:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
I don't like that.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I gotta fix that. 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 se C. To take his mom
to church and en route, well that's how he died
(38:12):
the 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 who search for the Our American Stories podcast go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded every year for
the most outstanding Division one college football player who began
(00:30):
his career as a walk on. Previous recipients include Tampa
Bay's quarterback Baker Mayfield and Stetson Bennett of the La Rams.
It's 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 (00:50):
Brandon Burlsworth's the best person I ever met in my life.
My name is Tommy Tye, and 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.
(01:13):
And I remember being called by the junior high coach
at that time, men 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
(01:36):
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
(01:57):
was you weren't going to run him off. He was
gonna be there every day, he was gonna be early,
he's gonna 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
(02:17):
we constantly told our kids, 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 don't notice them growing,
(02:42):
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 about six two,
two hundred and thirty five pounds, and he was much
(03:06):
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 them someplace
in your room where you can see him every day.
And he'd repeat that to me. And I know I
(03:27):
never want 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, and every morning,
sometimes in the dark, sitting by the door was Brandon,
(03:49):
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 jail. You're not that funny. And so his senior
year we won the conference championship and he was an
all like I said, an All state player. He wanted
to be a college player, and he continued to work,
(04:12):
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 in Russellville. He comes back first,
I get a call from the coach at Arkadelphia and
he said, when did you become a liar? I said,
I did not ever quit. He said, well, you told
(04:33):
me this Burlsworth kid was this tallst plate, this strong,
this fast. And he said, he's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster.
You know, the razorbacks not interested to him because we
don't want to offer him. If the razorbacks are, you know,
are interested, I said, they're not interested. So they were
going to offer same thing from coach at Arkansas Tech,
Brooks Sollisworth at the time, and h on Monday after
(04:58):
he got back from those places, called him into the
office and I was really excited that he was going
to get an opportunity 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.
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
(05:22):
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
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,
(05:45):
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
want to be a razorback and I'm gonna be a razorback.
What are you gonna do? I had Danny Ford's number
at the university and we knew each other, and I
(06:08):
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 head of recruiting. The
time I have Harold. Look at I said, non on, Harold,
look at Haroldserry looked at him. He's alreay really out
as a favor I'd like for you to look at
And after seeing the new statistics and new little tapes
(06:28):
that we'd done some things with him, running through ropes
and stuff like this, he said, Tommy, we don't have
the scholarships. We'll make him a preferred walk on. I said,
what's a preferred walk on? He said nothing. 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.
(06:52):
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.
And the coaches are not really wanting you because if
you come and you make it, it makes them look
bad because they didn't recruit you in the first place.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
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
(07:31):
American Story. This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Consider making a tax deductible donation to our
American Stories. Go to our American Stories dot com. Give
(07:52):
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot com.
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
of Brandon Burlsworth. When we last left off, Brandon's high
(08:16):
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):
Not 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.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
A couple of months.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
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, three year old. But he was fun
when he got a little bit older, when he you know,
got out of the baby baby stage and I could
(09:04):
mess with him, have him do silly things and play
pretend baseball in the living room and having him sliding
headfirst on the carpet and all kinds of things like that.
It was you know, it was a lot. It was
a lot of fun. But uh, you know, as a
kid eight or nine, ten years old, there was no
indication that you were looking at a future All American,
(09:25):
at an NFL player, nothing, Just the same as everybody
else trying to figure it out. Just a normal kid
loved sports. He shouldn't have any choice, cause you know,
he's gonna be with me. You know that we're gonna
be balling in some way, whether it's football, basketball, baseball,
really into baseball. But you know, he was just like
(09:47):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Wasn't my team. The angry is no more.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He just shagballs and you know, just helped me out.
And and he wasn't very good. He just wasn't naturally gifted.
It certainly didn't show it at that age. But uh,
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 it, you said, the
(10:22):
kid's nine or ten years old, and you're trying to
make him act like he's sixteen or seventeen.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
But he would run sprints, was and always did. But
I was 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 Uh, he'd like
to lay around watch the TV. H he wore out
a Star Wars VHS. I don't know how many times
I'd come over to the house as watching that again.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
But when he got older, he got thirteen years old.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Now he's old enough to be in our league, own
our team, and so he was playing on my team,
and UH, 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 baps at least once
during the game, and plays two innings in the field.
(11:14):
That's rules that does not apply to you, because this
is family. If I want to bench you 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, that we're going to go.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
You're gonna play.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
He lost those two pounds every week all season long.
Never felt put him on scales. He's lost those two pounds.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
The Birlsworth family is a very small family. There's 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
picture much. You know, we loved him and try to
(12:02):
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 had some
(12:22):
issues but was still the dad. But they were just
really really tight brothers.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I wasn't very fond of being called dad. So, oh,
your boys played a good game.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
It's not my son.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And that happened a lot. Even happened senior year in
high school, which was strange.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
It happened last week.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah I did, didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
It happened a lot, and it's still happened, and now
it makes a little more sense.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Maybe you know, here's go by of it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But when we're when we've got like a two year
older and I'm being congratulated on my son, who's my brother,
you know, I was.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I was crazy about that. Finally, just like flying whatever.
Speaker 5 (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 around 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 5 (13:31):
But he wasn't holder than now. He set a really
good example. Most of the things that Brandon did, Marty
and I found out after the accident.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
One of my favorite stories is humbleness. 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?
Speaker 4 (13:58):
You look like Drew Carrey. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Let's see. She said, Oh, coach, they just 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 of his
(14:23):
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, 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, I understand
(14:46):
where this is at. That's the way.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
It was one of my favorite stories about Brunning in
his college years. And we didn't know this till after
the accident passed away, but a couple of the Razorbacks
called 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 he
(15:11):
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.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Do you what are you doing?
Speaker 5 (15:33):
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 he said everything, and that
(15:58):
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, show him how to
perform a technique.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So I was going to.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Show this sophomore how to perform this defensive line technique
where he would engage a blocker and hen get off
a blocker and make a tackle, So give me that helmet.
I put that helmet on and I turned around look
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
(16:46):
to get out of this, you know, And I'm thinking, well, yeah,
brand will probably you know, he'll probably.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Take it easy on me.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
No.
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 got up, ripped that helmet off, through it to
that young man. I got it from my turn to
Burlsworth 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 come over
and said you all right, Yeah, I'm good after practice.
To Brandon's credit, he did come by and check on me,
but he put me put that was in 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, and.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
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
her 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 boy
(18:53):
I wanted to, 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 Horton 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 m M. That's you know,
big words there for Brandon. It's a lot of talk.
(20:21):
So when these other schools are calling and saying we've
got him books, we got him, you know, I knew
that probably not gonna happen, cause he wanted to be
a razor back.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
So continued.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Over the winter, we'd go back over for visits. During
basketball season, Coach Horton started to warm up a little
bit to him. Yeah, you know, I'm cracking how many
scholarships are still available. So Brandon and I were going
over to the basketball game. Coach Hoorton told us where
to find him. To brand H, I said, okay, this
is what we're gonna do. I said, we get over there.
(20:53):
I want you to stand as tall as you can,
you know, stand close to him and stand up good
and tall. He said, okay, So we had to, you know,
we playing this out. So brand is staying there. I'd
love to see a video 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, He's still grown.
He's just seventeen years old. Coach Whorton looks up at
Brandlos and me. He said, well, he's growing is and
(21:15):
I said, yeah, he his 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 Horton one time, we 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
(21:35):
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. It's pride is
And I said, yep, 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 talked to some coaches
(21:57):
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 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.
(22:18):
He repeats it and he'll know. I said, coach, listen,
he's not going down. He said, all right. I said,
he'll show you, and he did a walk on him.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
That's not enough.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I remember calling after that first year, after January, after
that first season, which he was just scout team red shirt,
he dressed for a couple of games, you know, which is.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Cool for us.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I took pictures of him with his jersey on with
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.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Now. I didn't think it was either.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
But if that would have been me, yeah, I'm uh,
I'm probably pretty happy right now.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
If I don't get a play, okay, 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 for that and we
showed up over at the University in August for to
a day's and they still were at that time to
(23:26):
a day's about three hundred pounds even over something. You know,
it's been exaggerated in places, but anyway, it's way too heavy.
And August in Arkansas on the old astro turf, it
was borderline dangerous for him. You know, his face was
the red. But you know, he's not gonna quit. He's
gonna keep going. But they took all that weight off
(23:46):
of him pretty 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.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
Hard every day.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
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
(24:34):
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, said, 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's rained that day. He sees me.
(25:17):
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
more time and I left.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
In a razorback.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
It's such a big deal in this state. We have
no proteins. I don't think they could compete really with racebacks.
You know, there's no second place to be in a razorback.
And I think Brandon had the confidence. I mean I
(26:04):
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. Here, he come back into town, we
go to Walmart or something, you know, and and never
did he never did he say to me, I don't
(26:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
He would all you know, we'd go.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
He just facts like he was one of one of
the normal.
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
scholar 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 eight he is
also all American. That's just an unbelievable progression. And all
(27:15):
American was 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,
(27:37):
and 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, which
I thought I was really neat. I interviewed a lot
of agents, and after a while a lot of them
flew into Harrison. I meet from Pittsburgh and California, and
I meet some pretty big time agents and and I
talked about it, and he said, why we do it ourselves.
(28:21):
I've not learned anything from them that's not basically business
one on one, and I've been in business for a
long time. If you if you want to do that,
so 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
(28:43):
are probably attorneys, you know, people like that. I'm a photographer,
you know, a studio photographer, so I didn't know if
I'd even get a shot at it.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
But they took their.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Money, so our money is as good as anybody else's,
I guess the way.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
I look at it.
Speaker 6 (28:55):
And got a phone call from from Indianapolis. You know,
tell me I was a new member of the Indianapolis coach.
Speaker 7 (29:04):
He laughs, Like the rest of us at the Drew
Carey comparisons, he prefers the ones the colt use.
Speaker 8 (29:08):
The scouting reports.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I'll say, like Steve McKinney, you like Steve mckennity, So
if you can get one another like that, we're we're happy.
Speaker 8 (29:16):
We'll take all of the Stephen mckenny's.
Speaker 6 (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 7 (29:24):
The way the Colts look at it is that Pearlsworth
is assumed to be starter. Peyton Manning their quarterback needs
protection for Kyd Burlsworth provided for quarterback Flint Starner at Arkansas.
Gurlsworth says, it'll happen in time.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I'll talk for 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 8 (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.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Things does he do?
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I mean he didn't allow the sack in the last
couple of years yet like that.
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Well, he's very athletic. You know, he's got good feet,
he he's got good skills, you know, athletic skills for
a big man. He's three three and 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. 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 4 (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
pri 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 celebration they were having for one in the
(31:12):
west of the SEC and the ring ceremony.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I had to get back home. So I had left
and done a couple of 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.
I'm sitting right beside Fults's dairry, which is a mile
(31:36):
about a mile back from where the rector plays. And
I 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
(31:57):
for us, because I knew they were celebrating in Fedville. Well,
I was there an hour before they got this scene cleared.
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 men named Danny Gilbert. And
Danny coming said Burlsworth has died. And I said how
(32:21):
And he said, I said, I just left him in
Fedville not an hour ago. He said, he's died in
a car wreck. And then the light comes on. You
were just there, and he said, I said, how'd it have?
Speaker 4 (32:35):
You said?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
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 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,
(33:02):
when I got home, we got off the phone and
my wife's sitting there and I'm upset and I'm teared
up 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
(33:23):
I went and I've never been involved in a scene
like that before in my life. And it was just
so sad, And of course gloom came over the entire
state of Arkansas, especially Harrison. Everybody knew Brandon, everybody knew
the story, and so when the.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Media people.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Came into Harrison, there was a lot of them, and
Marty asked me to talk with them, and so we
gathered them all in a room at the at the
high school and no one time I school at the
Junior High at that time at the Junior High and
got him in a room and I told him, I said,
(34:09):
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 about this young man. I said,
but here's the deal. The family wants you to look
everywhere you want to look. Everything will be an open
book for you. Ask questions you want to ask, Go
(34:30):
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 then I spoke at
the funeral. That was probably one of the hardest things
I've done in my lifetime.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
He's been gone longer than we had him.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Memories, my memories are not like that. I think of
what our boys have done.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Over the years. Literally, I mean, he wasn't even here
then when they were.
Speaker 5 (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 photographs that we do every day, We talk
about him every day, we share him with people, and
he just once in a while it'll hit Marty and
I he's gone, you know, you know, you just and
(35:25):
that horrible grief that we had when 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
(35:45):
faith out of Brandon's story, there's no story because it
was absolutely based on everything. And our foundation has been
the same way.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I love talking about Bran, I love talking about Marty
VICKI I remember, you know, and so 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 what would have been Brandon's first game.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
We were in the owner's box.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And first thing we're gona 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're going. Okay, yeah, missus.
Burlsworth says that I'm doing it. And so I'm here
in the first camp we had.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
It was awful.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
It was hot, it just rained, and we had hundreds
of kids out there and oh my gosh, and we did.
We've got it now where it's a fine tune machine,
but that first one was, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But those kids that come to those camps, you know,
of course they come to see 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 (37:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
I don't like that.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I gotta fix that. 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 se C. To take his mom
to church and en route, well that's how he died
(38:12):
the story of Brandon Birlesworth here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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