Photos by Angela Shoemaker
The home where Michael Bush’s family has lived since 1991, in a neighborhood off Algonquin Parkway between Dixie Highway and Cane Run Road, has always been cozy, but it’s also getting cramped. One of two Paul Hornung Awards, given to the state’s best high school football player, sits atop the big-screen television in the living room, looking as inconsequential in the trophy-filled space as an ingot of gold in Fort Knox. The other Hornung Award, along with the identical-looking Frank Camp Award, another statewide high school accolade, is perched atop a pair of speakers next to the TV, and while the WAVE-3 Athlete of the Week award remains hidden beneath an /files/storyimages/table, countless other trophies and plaques fill in what is the first, and probably not last, shrine to Michael Bush.
"This is just a little bit…Mike brings something home all the time," notes Bush’s mother, Toni, "I have so much stuff I can’t even put it out."
The University of Louisville star running back’s father, Mike Sr., moves to a corner of the room, where, hidden next to the front door, some of the "stuff" Toni wishes she could exhibit is stowed. Unrolling a long poster, he displays a life-size version of his son, wearing his Cardinal red and white and giving a stiff-arm to an opponent. The similarity to the Heisman Trophy pose is unmistakable, and clearly not unintentional.
Bush, a senior, is being touted — as is his teammate, junior quarterback Brian Brohm — for the 2006 Heisman, which is awarded annually to the season’s outstanding college football player. It’s the game’s most prestigious trophy, and only superlative athletes need apply.
Bush fits that billing. He’s an athlete whose talents stand out regardless of experience, coaching or technique. At 13, his dad took him to have his pitch speed measured with a radar gun. "The coach at Shawnee clocked him at 80 miles per hour," says the elder Bush, "and that’s left-handed," the side coveted by professional baseball scouts.
"I wish he’d try to pick it up again," says Bush Sr. In fact, he feels so strongly about his son’s potential as a pitcher that he suggested he audition for the Cincinnati Reds when they held open tryouts in Louisville in July. "That kid had a fast arm with control," he says, smacking his fist into his hand. "He could make that glove pop."
Bush’s mother, on the other hand, would rather see her son play basketball. "I love basketball," she says. "I thought he was awesome." And she has proof on the walls to back up that statement: second-team all-state as a sophomore on a squad with U of L hero Larry O’Bannon in 2001; and first-team all-state the next two years, sharing the honor in 2003 with recent Boston Celtics draft pick Rajon Rondo, University of Tennessee star Chris Lofton and uber-recruit OJ Mayo.
 Bush is aiming for a record 3,000-plus rushing yards at U of L. |  Bush stays grounded with parents Toni and Mike Sr. and brother Dawaun. |
Yet for all his talent as a baseball pitcher or a power forward, football, barring a catastrophic injury, will supply the bricks and mortar to build the Bushes a home large enough to display all of their son’s accomplishments in one room. Coming off a year in which he scored 144 points and ran for 23 touchdowns — both school records — despite missing two games with a broken foot, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound running back needs just 819 yards to surpass Walter Peacock as U of L’s all- time leading rusher.
"I only need about 600 yards to reach 3,000," says Bush, mentioning his career rushing total. He’s standing in the football complex at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, surrounded by the images and memorabilia of U of L’s most acclaimed players. Bush comes off as remarkably focused even though the first snap of the 2006 season is three months away as he speaks. "I want to get my jersey retired here," he says. "All I’m thinking about is what I have to do to get there."
Much of Bush’s success could hinge on the health of U of L’s quarterbacks. Both Brohm and backup Hunter Cantwell were on the receiving /files/storyimages/of some punishment last year —Brohm’s season ended when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus against Syracuse, and Cantwell got smacked around like a pinata during the Gator Bowl. Bush understands the need to bring more to the field than rushes and touchdowns. "Pass protection is the biggest thing I’m working on this summer," he says. "It’s all about protecting Brohm."
Bush’s comment is loaded with irony. As a freshman at U of L in 2003, he imagined things quite differently. It would, he thought, be someone such as former Male High School teammate Sergio Spencer, now a reserve running back for the Cards, making those same comments about protecting him. The irony grows deeper due to the history between Brohm and Bush.
The two Louisville prep stars faced off in one of the most remarkable high school football games ever played, the 2002 Kentucky 4-A state title contest. Bush dazzled the audience on offense and also played defense, rarely ever walking off the field. Brohm, on the other hand, played only on offense and remained better rested, needing just four plays in one stretch of the third quarter to rack up three touchdown passes.
Male made an amazing comeback, then Trinity regained its cushion, then Male got its second onside kick in a row and looked to have the momentum. The game, however, was decided on a turnover, Bush’s only one of the game, on a 44-yard pass that flew shy of Spencer and into the arms of Trinity defender Brian Smith with 1:21 remaining. Trinity prevailed 59-56. The numbers speak to the legendary status of this game: Bush finished with 584 total yards, six passing touchdowns and one running touchdown; Brohm racked up 604 total yards, seven passing touchdowns and one running TD.
Bush’s coach at Male, Bob Redman, remembers the game well. "That loss," notes Redman, "it wilted him. Mike played to the point of total exhaustion and laid every bit of athletic ability on the field."
When he signed his letter of intent to go to U of L in 2003, Bush spurned football powers Ohio State, Florida State and Tennessee, as well as Kentucky, and indicated that he expected to be a quarterback, which he played almost exclusively his senior year at Male. That year, he told The Courier-Journal’s C. Ray Hall, "I think I would just stick at the quarterback spot. I’d rather be in the pocket."
But he was flushed from that position his freshman year when Stefan LeFors claimed the starting spot after Dave Ragone, his eligibility ended, was drafted by the Houston Texans. LeFors had a sensational two-year run in which the Cardinals gained a level of national recognition unseen since the Howard Schnellenberger era.
Coach Bobby Petrino couldn’t waste Bush’s athletic gifts on the bench for even one season, so slowly he found ways to play him — on special teams, as a receiver and as a running back. He finished his freshman year as the third-leading running back behind two future NFL draft picks, Lionel Gates and Eric Shelton. When early in 2004 Brohm followed his father’s and brothers’ footsteps to U of L and signed to play QB, Bush’s fate was sealed.
"He never did act like he was mad or pout," says his father about Bush’s reaction at the time. "But he just said he didn’t like how it went down, and I agree with him. I had a talk with the coach about it. . . . I said, ‘Coach, I wish you guys didn’t come knocking on my door saying he was going to be quarterback.’ . . . We had our words and went from there. It wasn’t a bad exchange."
"I tried to get Mike to leave," the senior Bush remembers, "and he basically asked me to call around. And I called the NCAA about transferring and all that and I told him it’s a big move, but if that’s what you want to do, I’m behind you. Mike said he wanted to give it some thought, and the next day he called me and he told me don’t worry about it."
"I was frustrated with the situation," the son now says, "but I figured if a guy like (Brohm) is going to come in, I wouldn’t mind."
U of L’s head coach compliments his player for a level-headed approach. In an e-mail response to questions for this story, Petrino writes that Bush is "never going to get too high or too low, but he always remains confident in his ability and never lets the game affect him."
Redman concurs, saying, "You could always count on Mike being focused and intent every ball game, and that’s why he’ll be a great NFL player. He takes things in stride, handles things very well."
As the father of former U of L quarterback Chris Redman, who was a backup on last year’s Tennessee Titans roster, Bob Redman should know a bit about what it takes to get to the next level. "He’s big, he’s strong and he’s got an ungodly arm," says Redman of Bush. "Injury is the only thing keeping him from being great at the next level, at whatever position."
Redman’s comments are interesting because, like the player’s parents, he believes Bush’s athletic gifts merit a chance at being an NFL quarterback. Another who agrees is the archetype for a quarterback-turned-running back, Flaget High School graduate and Notre Dame and Green Bay Packers star Paul Hornung. "He could make it in the NFL as a QB if he got a chance," says Hornung, who lives in Louisville and still follows football closely. "He has so much talent and is a very unique athlete. You don’t see many running backs his weight going to the NFL."
As a runner, Bush combines nimble feet and the ability to make tacklers miss their target, with the size and toughness to run right over people. That’s a formidable combination to counter. As his longtime teammate Spencer says, Bush is "bigger, faster and stronger" than nearly every guy who tries to take him down.
Indeed, judging by all the sports-agency materials piling up at his parents’ home, the people who make money for and from professional athletes also think Bush will succeed in frustrating defenses in the NFL. One company sent the Bushes a spiral-bound packet that weighs five pounds or more and includes a color image of how Bush’s name would look on the back of every NFL team’s jersey, plus a complete rundown of the 15-20 teams most likely to draft him next year as a running back.
Bush isn’t talking about the NFL yet. "I’m just worried about my goals this year," he says, "and beating Kentucky" in the Sept. 3 season opener. Some may take Bush’s modesty as an act, but to his friends and family, it’s Mike being Mike. His dad says, "He could walk around with his shoulders hunched up and his head up if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. He’s the same kid
every day."
Friends and family keep Bush grounded. The group includes his father’s four sisters and their five children, and on his mother’s side, four more sisters and a brother, plus their four children. Then there are the two other kids Mike grew up with — his brother Dawaun and his cousin Bill, whom his parents adopted at age four. Occasionally, his father’s sisters take Bush out to Wal-Mart or to dinner to, as the senior Bush says, "laugh, sit and cut up."
With his parents often working — his father has spent the last 21 years at Kingsbury Concrete and his mother, in her current position, is a machinist at Dynacraft — the three boys passed much of their time with Bush Sr.’s mother, who lives on North 42nd Street. To this day, all the grandkids get together once a week for dinner at their grandmother’s house, where baked fish, quiche and salad are often on the menu.
Toni Bush also happens to be a fine cook. Harry Douglas, a junior wide receiver and Bush’s roommate from Jonesboro, Ga., has found a home away from home at the Bush household. While Bush traditionally has his mom fry him gizzards the Thursday before a game, Douglas enjoys the chance to come over for fried chicken. "Mama and Daddy Bush," as Spencer has affectionately dubbed them, have an open-door policy when it comes to Bush and his teammates. Mike Bush Sr. is matter-of-fact about the situation, saying, "If Mike comes over here to get soap, I guess Harry has got soap too."
Douglas shares the philosophy. "Whatever I buy is his and whatever he buys is mine," the junior wide receiver says. The two are close, sharing the common bond of tight-knit families and brothers close to them in age. Dawaun Bush is 16 and plays football at Ballard, while Douglas’ brother, Toney, is 20 and plays basketball at Florida State.
Douglas entertains notions of rising to the NFL, but recognizes that Bush is the luminary. "Being a star, a lot (of people) follow the way Mike carries himself," Douglas says, "but he hasn’t been selfish. He’s been a good team player."
Bush’s father would like to see him be more demonstrative on the field. "It’s not in his vocabulary to brag about what he does, but I’d like to see him show a little emotion sometimes," he says. His son’s tendency to linger in the pack as the team takes the field for a game also doesn’t sit well with Mike Sr. "It makes me mad — being the kid he is and athlete he is — he always kind of hangs back in the back. I said to him, ‘Get in the front. People look up to you; your own teammates look
up to you.’"
With Michael Bush, though, actions seem to show more than words. Redman observed the Heisman candidate’s confidence when he took Bush and Spencer to Baltimore while the Male coach’s son was playing for that city’s Ravens in the NFL. They went into the locker room, met the players (including a cocky and motivated Ray Lewis) and watched them sign autographs. On the plane ride home, Redman remembers, "I look over to where Mike and Sergio are sitting and Mike is doodling on a piece of paper while Sergio is sound asleep."
And what was Michael Bush doing? "He was practicing his autograph."
