“The Bus.”
That nickname goes hand-in-hand with the great Jerome Bettis. In fact, you’d be excused if you only knew Bettis by his nickname rather than his real name.
Without a clever quip from a former Notre Dame student newspaper writer and later some good listening skills from broadcaster Myron Cope, though, that nickname might not have stuck and become such a great one in sports for all time.
Appearing on KDKA Radio with Acrisure Stadium public address announcer Larry Richert Wednesday ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers reporting to training camp, Bettis recalled just how the nickname came to be and how it took off in Pittsburgh.
“Well, actually, it was the student body newspaper [at Notre Dame]. And one of the students came up with and said I reminded them of a bus and how I kind of took people to school or whatever it was. And what he did was they started a chant. So the student body would chant, ‘Nobody stops the bus!’ whenever I’d have a run. And it just stuck, right?” Bettis said to Richert, according to audio via the show’s podcast page. “And then they just kept calling me, ‘Nobody stops the bus!’ And then it just kept going and kept going and kept going. And eventually, my coaches used to call me Bus or Bussy, and that’s kind of how Myron Cope and Bill Hillgrove overheard one of the coaches when we went and played Green Bay that year.
“One of the coaches had moved on to Wisconsin’s football team. And…he saw me in the lobby. He says, ‘Bussy!’ and the rest is history. They overheard it, and then it just kind of grew.”
While at Notre Dame, Jerome Bettis was a man among boys at the running back position, dominating across his final two seasons, rushing for 972 yards and 16 touchdowns in 1991 and then 825 yards and 10 touchdowns in 1992, averaging more than 5.0 yards per carry in those two seasons.
At times, he would carry defenders on his back, using his size and strength to his advantage as a ball carrier, taking the kids to school, as the student newspaper once said.
That nickname carried over into the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams, but it really didn’t take off until he became a Steeler.
Following his trade to the Steelers ahead of the 1996 season, the nickname became one of the most popular in all of sports. “Bussy” didn’t really stick until 1998, though, when the Packers visited Pittsburgh for a Week 10 matchup on Monday Night Football, which led to Cope and Hillgrove overhearing one of his former Notre Dame coaches using the nickname, which ultimately stuck from there.
Of course, it helped that he was a dominant force on the field, earning a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 2015.
Jerome Bettis registered 61 100-yard regular-season rushing games during his career, with 50 of them coming as a member of the Steelers. He also made six Pro Bowls during his career and was voted First-team All-Pro twice in 1993 and 1996.
Bettis was named the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1993 and the AP Comeback Player of the Year in 1996. He was also named the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2001.
In his career, Jerome Bettis rushed for 13,662 yards and 91 touchdowns, sitting eighth all-time in NFL history in rushing yards. “The Bus” had a lot of mileage on it when it was all said and done, but it sure was dependable.