19 June 1949 - 8 May 2024
Club Historian Rob Mason pays tribute…
We were saddened to learn of the death of former Sunderland assistant manager Viv Busby at the age of 75. Viv was an outstanding coach when Sunderland bounced straight out of the third division in the late eighties. He arrived in 1987 as number two to Denis Smith who he had previously worked with successfully at York City. The duo worked wonders on Wearside before a parting of the ways came after Busby had spent four and a half years at SAFC.
In his playing days, Busby played in an FA Cup final for Fulham and was part of promotion sides at Luton, Stoke and York. He had a good record against Sunderland and had a brief spell on loan to Newcastle. Busby also played on loan for Sheffield United, had a goal-laden spell with Norwich and played in the USA with Tulsa Roughnecks before finishing with Blackburn Rovers and York City.
However, it was with Wycombe Wanderers that High Wycombe born Viv began his career, joining them as a 17-year-old in 1966 and spending four seasons in the Isthmian League while developing a career as a cost accountant. It was a hat-trick in a county cup tie that gave Viv his big break. While Busby would later be part of Newcastle’s cup humiliation at non-league Hereford in 1972 it was the man who had masterminded Sunderland’s own cup humiliation at Yeovil in 1949 who spotted Viv’s talent. Alec Stock had managed Yeovil when they beat Sunderland. As manager of Luton Stock snapped Busby up and later signed him again for Fulham for whom Viv played in the 1975 FA Cup final alongside Bobby Moore. At Craven Cottage Viv also played alongside George Best.
Denis Smith was a less glamourous teammate but the pair bonded during Viv’s spell at Stoke. Busby linked up again with Smith in Denis’s first managerial job at York, starting his coaching career as his playing days ended. Busby proved himself to be a very popular coach when the duo came to Sunderland. A lively, engaging character who quickly established a rapport with the players, ‘Buzzer’ was a big part of the success that saw the Lads go from the third tier to the top within three seasons between 1988 and 1990.
Viv went on to manage Hartlepool and York as well as coaching at Everton, Gretna and Swindon. It was while working as assistant manager to former Sunderland star Colin Todd at Swindon that Viv faced his toughest challenge. Diagnosed with leukaemia in 2000 he was in hospital for 11 months, enduring five courses of chemotherapy.
Thankfully, Viv came through that awful year, even returning to football, being assistant manager of Workington when he decided to emigrate to Spain. I was last in touch with Viv via email in 2022. During this conversation he remembered playing against Sunderland for Luton in the 1973 FA Cup quarter-final. Viv wrote, “The crowd of 50,000 was incredible, the atmosphere was amazing. The crowd played a massive part for the Sunderland team, I only know too well being assistant manager at Sunderland how important the crowd is.” Viv Busby learned a lot about Sunderland that day in 1973 and played his own valuable part in a successful and important spell in his own time at the club. Always an engaging and popular person, Viv Busby will always be fondly remembered at SAFC.