Born in Slough, Buckinghamshire,[1] Busby started his playing career at Wycombe Wanderers in 1966, but was unable to hold down a regular place in their team. He moved to Luton Town in January 1970.[4] At Kenilworth Road, he scored four goals in his first nine matches, helping the club gain promotion to the Second Division in 1969–70. He scored eight goals in 1970–71 but struggled to find form in 1971–72 and spent time out on loan at Newcastle United. He was sold to Fulham in August 1973 where he had the most prolific spell of his career. He scored 12 goals in 1973–74 and 18 in 1974–75 of which six were in the FA Cup helping Fulham reach the 1975 FA Cup final, losing 2–0 against West Ham United. After scoring 38 goals in 155 matches for the Cottagers, he moved to First Division Norwich City where he scored 11 goals in his first 18 matches, including a hat-trick against Leicester City on New Year's Day 1977.[citation needed]
Busby worked as a coach at York City between 1982 and 1987.[5] He was Sunderland AFC first team coach under Denis Smith between 1987 and 1991. He became manager of Hartlepool United on 15 February 1993 and left the position on 24 November 1993.[6] He was a youth team coach at Swindon Town in 2001, during which time he underwent six months of treatment for leukaemia.[7] He was named as assistant manager at York City in September 2004.[8] He became the caretaker manager at York City in November 2004 following the sacking of Chris Brass.[9] He left York by mutual consent on 10 February 2005, when he was replaced by Billy McEwan.[10] Busby worked as Youth Academy Manager at Gretna,[11] but left after a change to the backroom staff.[12] He was appointed assistant manager at Workington in September 2007.[12] He left in October 2011 to emigrate to Spain.[13]
^"Busby returns to Mintermen". Non-League Daily. Baltic Publications. 17 September 2004. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
^"Viv Busby". Pools Stats. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
^Jarred, Martin; Windross, Dave (1997). "Football League Players". Citizens and Minstermen, A Who's Who of York City FC 1922–1997. Citizen Publications. p. 19. ISBN0-9531005-0-2.