Tommy Deas
TideSports.com Editor
Gussie Busch doesn't look much different than any other walk-on linebacker at the University of Alabama.
The 6-foot, 210-pound freshman didn't get on the field in the 2014 season, which isn't unusual for a scout team player in his first year.
It would be easy not to notice him in a team photo or on the practice field. A closer look at the roster, however, yields clues to his story.
There's the last name, of course, and the fact he's from St. Louis. Figure out that Gussie is a family name, short for August, and the moment of recognition arrives.
"I am the great, great grandson (of the man) who started the company," he said in New Orleans a couple of days before Alabama's game against Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.
The company, of course, is Anheuser-Busch, which introduced a bottled beer product called Budweiser to America in the 1870s.
Suggest that Busch knows more about beer than the entire UA football roster and he laughs.
"Probably so," he said.
Busch had scholarship offers out of high school from lower NCAA Division I schools like Southern Illinois and Ohio University. He wanted to join a more prominent program and chose to accept Alabama's invitation to become part of the team as a preferred non-scholarship player over a similar offer from Ole Miss.
"I picked here to come because I liked the coaches a lot and the facilities," he said. "Everything was great. It's been an awesome experience."
The coach who recruited him gave him nicknames, although his teammates just call him Gussie.
"He'd mess around, call me Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light, all that stuff," Busch said.
In St. Louis, his family name is royalty, but he shrugs it off.
"I'm just like any other person," he said. "My parents definitely make me earn it, work hard. I've got to get a degree so I've got to be on track."
His family no longer owns Anheuser-Busch. It was sold in 2008 in a $52 billion takeover. Three years ago, his father started a new brewing company, Kraftig. Gussie wants to major in business to prepare and carry on the family tradition.
"That's a start-up company so if that does well I'd love to take that over," he said.
Busch didn't grow up around a distillery. The family home has 16 rooms and 6,300 square feet on 4.5 wooded acres in a St. Louis suburb. Busch likes to take advantage of visiting Grant's Farm, the family's ancestral home that was turned into a public attraction in the 1950s. The 281-acre habitat has more than 900 animals from more than 100 species.
"That's where my dad grew up. I go there every week when I'm in town to see all the animals," he said. "It's a big zoo kind of thing in St. Louis. A lot of pets, I love animals. At Grant's Farm there's all sorts of buffalo and wild deer, animals from all over the country.
"There's elephants, I love seeing the elephants. They're probably my favorite."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1722157
TideSports.com Editor
Gussie Busch doesn't look much different than any other walk-on linebacker at the University of Alabama.
The 6-foot, 210-pound freshman didn't get on the field in the 2014 season, which isn't unusual for a scout team player in his first year.
It would be easy not to notice him in a team photo or on the practice field. A closer look at the roster, however, yields clues to his story.
There's the last name, of course, and the fact he's from St. Louis. Figure out that Gussie is a family name, short for August, and the moment of recognition arrives.
"I am the great, great grandson (of the man) who started the company," he said in New Orleans a couple of days before Alabama's game against Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.
The company, of course, is Anheuser-Busch, which introduced a bottled beer product called Budweiser to America in the 1870s.
Suggest that Busch knows more about beer than the entire UA football roster and he laughs.
"Probably so," he said.
Busch had scholarship offers out of high school from lower NCAA Division I schools like Southern Illinois and Ohio University. He wanted to join a more prominent program and chose to accept Alabama's invitation to become part of the team as a preferred non-scholarship player over a similar offer from Ole Miss.
"I picked here to come because I liked the coaches a lot and the facilities," he said. "Everything was great. It's been an awesome experience."
The coach who recruited him gave him nicknames, although his teammates just call him Gussie.
"He'd mess around, call me Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light, all that stuff," Busch said.
In St. Louis, his family name is royalty, but he shrugs it off.
"I'm just like any other person," he said. "My parents definitely make me earn it, work hard. I've got to get a degree so I've got to be on track."
His family no longer owns Anheuser-Busch. It was sold in 2008 in a $52 billion takeover. Three years ago, his father started a new brewing company, Kraftig. Gussie wants to major in business to prepare and carry on the family tradition.
"That's a start-up company so if that does well I'd love to take that over," he said.
Busch didn't grow up around a distillery. The family home has 16 rooms and 6,300 square feet on 4.5 wooded acres in a St. Louis suburb. Busch likes to take advantage of visiting Grant's Farm, the family's ancestral home that was turned into a public attraction in the 1950s. The 281-acre habitat has more than 900 animals from more than 100 species.
"That's where my dad grew up. I go there every week when I'm in town to see all the animals," he said. "It's a big zoo kind of thing in St. Louis. A lot of pets, I love animals. At Grant's Farm there's all sorts of buffalo and wild deer, animals from all over the country.
"There's elephants, I love seeing the elephants. They're probably my favorite."
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1722157
