Blair Buswell's journey from BYU football player to renowned sculptor reads like something out of a Hollywood script. The Pleasant Grove-based artist has spent over four decades transforming clay into bronze masterpieces, capturing the likenesses of more than 130 NFL Hall of Fame inductees and three presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When Buswell was a running back at Brigham Young University in the early 1980s, the team surgeon created special protective hand pads for him. The doctor wasn't worried about fumbles – he was concerned about protecting the hands of a promising young sculptor from being crushed by 300-pound linemen.
"He would check me out before the game, shake his head and say 'You're stupid to be out there,'" Buswell recalls with a laugh.
Those artistic hands have indeed proven to be his meal ticket, providing access to an extraordinary roster of celebrated figures including golf legend Jack Nicklaus, actor Charlton Heston, scores of professional football greats, and several Latter-day Saint prophets.
For decades, the North Ogden native and returned missionary has served as the lead sculptor for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. To date, Buswell has created more than 130 busts of Hall of Fame inductees permanently displayed at the famous Canton, Ohio museum – representing about one-third of the entire collection.
When Class of 2025 inductees Eric Allen and Jared Allen unveil their bronze busts this week, they will be seeing Buswell's handiwork. But his bronze creations extend far beyond the football field. His life-size-plus figure of "The Golden Bear" Jack Nicklaus raising his Masters-winning putt is displayed in Augusta, while statues of basketball coach John Wooden and Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle stand outside UCLA's Pauley Pavilion and Oklahoma's RedHawks Field, respectively.
Countless Utah State football fans have taken selfies with Buswell's larger-than-life statue of Aggie legend Merlin Olsen at Romney Stadium. He has also sculpted icons including Oscar Robertson, Bear Bryant, Warren Miller, and Doak Walker.
Meanwhile, his bronze busts of Church Presidents Harold B. Lee, Thomas S. Monson, and Russell M. Nelson are prominently displayed in the Hall of the Prophets in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
"Not bad for a dentist's kid from Weber County," Buswell admits. "I still pinch myself."
**An Artist in Cleats and Shoulder Pads**
Buswell's athletic and artistic journey represents a perfect storm of talent, preparation, and opportunity. Art and athletics both came naturally to him while growing up in northern Utah.
"I made my toys out of clay – cowboys and Indians and race cars," he told the Deseret News. To keep young Blair quiet during church services, his mother, LauRene Buswell, would hand him a Sucrets lozenge tin filled with modeling clay and flat toothpicks. "And then I'd make my toys right there in church."
Buswell was also a gifted athlete, and his two passions went hand-in-hand. At Weber High School, he was that rare student who claimed All-State honors in both football and track while also earning Sterling Scholar recognition in art.
Local universities recruited him for football, but they wanted him to wait his turn. "They were looking at me for down the line, and I wanted to play right away," he explains. So he took his diverse talents to Ricks College on a combined athletic-art-academic scholarship.
After football success with the Vikings, he briefly enrolled at Utah State University to study in their renowned illustration and design program. Following a Latter-day Saint mission to Washington, D.C., Buswell decided to play for BYU on pass-heavy Cougar squads that included Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young, and Robbie Bosco.
"So, if and when I ever got in, I blocked," he says with a smile.
Buswell jokes that he was a favorite of BYU head coach LaVell Edwards. "LaVell liked me because I was free – I was on an art scholarship. I played three years of Division I football on an art scholarship. Don't know many who have done that."
During his senior year, the Cougar running back even taught a BYU night class in sculpting. His early sculptures were primarily Western-themed pieces, though he has since become nationally renowned in the Western art community. "But I really wanted to do sports action."
His first bronze was the Competitor Award trophy that he sculpted for the Cougar Club. The recipient of that inaugural trophy? Former BYU linebacker and current University of Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.
**Unexpected Patrons: Coach Bill Walsh and 49ers Owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr.**
During his senior year in 1982, Buswell was approached by three-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Walsh at BYU's annual Cougar Club Banquet. Walsh was the banquet's guest speaker and had learned of Buswell's sculpting skills.
"After the banquet, Coach Walsh grabbed me and asked me if I would consider doing a sculpture of Eddie DeBartolo Jr., the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, as a gift to him for winning the Super Bowl," Buswell recalls.
Buswell immediately accepted the unexpected commission, ultimately sculpting busts of both DeBartolo and Walsh. "I called them a World Championship Combination."
Buswell flew to DeBartolo's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, to present the 49ers owner with his copy of the sculpture. Thrilled with the bust, DeBartolo asked the young artist about his career aspirations.
"My dream is to work for the NFL, especially for the Pro Football Hall of Fame," Buswell replied.
DeBartolo smiled, picked up his phone, called Pro Football Hall of Fame director Peter Elliott, and said there was a young man named Blair Buswell whom he needed to meet. Canton was only an hour's drive from Youngstown.
"So I drove to the Hall of Fame and they hired me – that was 43 years ago," Buswell recalls, still shaking his head at that life-changing moment.
**Welcoming Pro Football's Titans to Pleasant Grove**
Buswell's first Hall of Fame inductee sculpture was of veteran NFL coach Sid Gillman in 1983. That same year, he received advice from Hall of Fame inductee Merlin Olsen that still serves him well.
"Merlin pulled me aside and told me, 'If it's possible, let the inductees see what you're doing before it's unveiled so you can make any changes, if needed.'"
Buswell agreed with Olsen's wisdom. Each inductee's bust would be forever viewed by legions of pro football fans, making it essential that the athlete is satisfied with the final result.
Each year, Buswell arranges consultation time with each inductee he's assigned to sculpt. He collects initial measurements during the week after the Super Bowl when each new class of inductees is introduced. Afterward, he returns to Utah to begin early versions of each bust.
The inductees typically make trips to Buswell's studio, located in an industrial corner of Pleasant Grove. Inside his office, the artist and athlete collaborate on designing the bust, bouncing ideas around everything from facial expressions to hairstyles.
Prior to posing sessions, Buswell compiles picture boards with images of the inductee from different football seasons and ages to help inform their decisions.
"I'll joke with them and ask, 'Do you want to look like you want to bite someone's head off? Or look happy? Or somewhere in between?' I tell the players I don't want them to leave the studio until they are comfortable with the direction I'm going."
As a former college football player, Buswell speaks fluent gridiron with his subjects while working with them, building trust and putting the athletes at ease.
The artist remembers every posing session with the scores of players he has sculpted, but certain memories still prompt laughter:
During a consultation with Hall of Fame inductee Terry Bradshaw, the former Steelers quarterback got restless and invited Buswell to take a break from sculpting to catch a few passes.
"I've caught passes from some pretty good quarterbacks – Wilson, McMahon, Young, Bosco," he says. "But I've never had a ball come at me like that. There was no rise or fall. Just bullets." When Buswell returned to Bradshaw's bust, his hands were red and swollen.
Hall of Fame inductee John Madden was famously afraid to fly, so the NFL coaching and broadcast legend arrived at Buswell's Pleasant Grove studio in his customized Greyhound bus dubbed the "Madden Cruiser."
"Madden was as down home and as easy and comfortable to be with as anybody I've ever been with. Just chill and sincere. I fell in love with Madden as a person. He was really good to me."
While working with Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson in 1999, Buswell reminded the Southern Methodist University alum that they were on opposing sidelines during the 1980 Holiday Bowl. Dickerson ribbed Buswell about the game, saying that the late-game touchdown reception by Cougar receiver Matt Braga was a lucky catch.
"I told Eric that Braga's first seven or eight catches that season were all touchdowns. He only caught touchdowns. We called him 'Touchdown Braga.' So we just had fun going back and forth."
Years before Steve Young was a Hall of Fame inductee, he was Buswell's teammate at BYU. The artist remembers bumping into his old quarterback shortly after Young claimed his first NFL MVP award.
"I told him, 'Steve, if you keep this MVP stuff up, you and I are gonna spend some time together.' Steve thought that was the biggest joke he had ever heard."
Fast forward to 2005 when Young became the first left-handed quarterback elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The two men met again shortly after news broke of Young's Hall of Fame selection.
"Steve gave me a big hug and said, 'You told me I'd be here, and I didn't believe you.' That was a cool thing."
As predicted, Buswell sculpted the bust of his old Cougar quarterback. Young later narrated an ESPN-produced documentary about Buswell's studio consultation with 2018 inductee Randy Moss.
Many of Buswell's Hall of Fame subjects are now lifelong friends. A month ago, he received a random text from Steelers icon Troy Polamalu standing in front of Buswell's massive wagon train sculpture park installation in Omaha.
"What's up, Bus?" read Polamalu's text. "And then I'll get a text from Warren Sapp while he's scuba diving," Buswell adds, laughing.
**Testimonies Shared in Bronze**
Buswell's artistic talent also provides unique ways to share his faith. While serving as a full-time missionary in Washington, D.C., a local Latter-day Saint woman who was a high school ceramics teacher gave him 25 pounds of sculpting clay.
Elder Buswell spent his next preparation day sculpting a bust of an imagined church investigator he named "Mr. Brown." He began formulating ideas to blend his artistic talents with his missionary efforts.
"So I asked my mission president in an interview about doing a fireside and incorporating my sculptures with the missionary discussions about the Creation and the Apostasy and the Restoration."
Enthused by the idea, President Lyle Ward arranged for a fireside in his home ward. "It was a success," Buswell remembers. "I did that fireside several times during my mission."
Decades later, Buswell secured his first commission to sculpt the bust of a Latter-day Saint leader. President Harold B. Lee had already died when Buswell began crafting his likeness for the Hall of the Prophets, so the artist worked closely with President Lee's daughter and son-in-law to best represent the church's 11th president in bronze.
He was able to collaborate directly with President Monson and President Nelson for their respective sculptures. Both church leaders came to Buswell's Pleasant Grove studio for posing sessions, and both men were great to work with.
Buswell admits feeling a unique level of pressure while creating busts of faith leaders beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints worldwide, but he has learned to embrace the process. The personal memories of associating with the church presidents and their families will remain with him forever.
"President Monson's daughter Ann M. Dibb came up to me after we were finishing the final details on her father's bust and said to me, 'You captured my dad.' That meant a lot to me."
**A Sculptor's Legend-Filled Studio**
Walking through Buswell's Pleasant Grove studio doubles as a visit to a one-of-a-kind museum celebrating sport, faith, and the American West. Most prominent are replicas of his larger-than-life sculptures of a wagon train monument that are part of a sprawling installation in Omaha, Nebraska, commemorating American Western migration. Buswell was joined in the project by his friend and fellow sculptor, the late Ed Fraughton.
There are also heroic-sized clay reminders of his figurative work capturing his love of sports and religious devotion. Buswell is never really alone in his studio – it's populated with copies of his Hall of Fame inductee busts, including one of Deion Sanders sporting a red bandana. The Pro Football Hall of Fame does not permit hats or other headwear in its official bronze busts, so Buswell playfully added one to his completed "Primetime" sculpture as a sartorial tribute to the colorful defensive back turned college coach.
A family man, Buswell and his wife Julie are parents of three adult children. "They all inherited the artistic gene," he says. "They don't want to be Dad. They don't want to do sculpture. But they do drawing, design, and photography."
All of the NFL greats Buswell has worked with have retired from the game, but sculptors enjoy far longer professional shelf lives than football players. The former Weber High and BYU running back has not lost his artistic touch. The same enthusiasm he felt crafting his first Hall of Fame bust of Coach Gillman remains today.
"People ask me when I'm going to retire – and my joke is, 'Not until Andy Reid retires.' I need to do Andy before I retire."
