Blair Buswell

Blair Buswell of Highland, Utah, is a traditional sculptor of bronze figures and was honored with the Sport Artist of the Year Award 1990 for his work in several sports and his invaluable contributions to the Academy. He became the Academy's first sculptor to win the award.

Buswell has one of the largest followings of any previous recipient. Buswell's notoriety has come mainly from his sports action and portrait pieces. In 1989, he was commissioned by the Academy to create the bronze sculpture of the Academy's annual Awards of Sport Athlete of the Year. The 1982 graduate of Brigham Young University has also sculpted busts of all new Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees since 1983. He has also created the NFL Special Service Award as well as medallions for Super Bowl XIX, XX and XXI.

His formal art training began at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where he was recognized as the top art student. Buswell moved to Brigham Young University and was named Top Sculpture Student and Scholarly Athlete. He was a running back on the Cougars football team but attended school on an art scholarship.

As a college athlete, he was fascinated with capturing the human figure in motion as well as the gesture, mood and expression of a person in deep thought. This unique combination of classically trained artist and athlete has lead Buswell to memorialize some of the greatest professional athletes of all time. Buswell's work is found in public and private collections, university campuses and sports complexes all across North America.

Buswell's unique combination of artist and athlete has opened many doors for his career. He has done awards for Major League Baseball and the NFL Players Association among others and has created sports action figures for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and the BYU Cougars. He has sculpted such notable people as gun inventor John M. Browning, American artist Norman Rockwell, astronaut Don Lind, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and football coaches Sid Gillman and Bill Walsh. Among the several famous athletes he has sculpted are O.J. Simpson, Doak Walker and Danny Ainge.

On April 16, 1998, Buswell unveiled his latest commission of baseball legend "Mickey Mantle" at the new Southwestern Bell Brick Town Ball Park, home of the Oklahoma Redhawks Triple-A baseball team in Oklahoma City. This is a nine-foot action figure of Mickey hitting one of his 50 home runs on his way to winning to Triple Crown in 1956. Other life-sized commissioned works include a sculpture of Jack Nicklaus for the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta, Georgia, and of basketball great Oscar Robertson for Cincinnati University.

In 1989, Buswell was commissioned by the Academy to design the "Order of the Eagle Exemplar" medallion given to each recipient of the ASAMA's Awards of Sport. The medallion design is still being used today.