Hank Leyland was weaned on football.

“Even before I was old enough to play, I felt like I knew the game,” Leyland, 56, said. “Guys were always gathering around our kitchen table talking football. And they did it with such passion.

“My father loved to debate and discuss the game. I grew up watching that and that benefitted me. Heck, I thought every kid grew up like that. I never knew how lucky I was.”

Leyland's father, Harry Leyland, was involved as a youth football and basketball coach in the Butler area for more than 50 years. He coached the South Side Blue Streaks in the Butler Area Midget Football League and Hank played for him.

Leyland wound up playing high school football at Butler, played on a WPIAL co-championship team and was a tri-captain his senior year.

A 1979 Butler graduate, Leyland jumped into coaching in the BAMFL just two months later. He has since coached football at the midget, ninth grade, junior varsity and varsity levels in Butler. He wound up his coaching career as president of the BAMFL for three years before finally getting out of the game after more than 30 years of coaching.

“I'm retired, as of right now,” Leyland said, holding back a chuckle. “It's time to step down. There are younger guys with different ideas.

“It's August and I haven't stepped on a football field yet. It's kind of odd.”

He will be stepping on a football field again Sept. 22 — at Art Bernardi Stadium — to accept the Butler Football Hometown Hero of the Year Award prior to the Golden Tornado's game that night with North Allegheny.

The Butler Football Hometown Hero organization has been honoring former Golden Tornado players, longtime supporters and loyal behind-the-scenes personnel since 2004. It honored the 1963 Butler football team on its 50th anniversary.

The organization recently decided to honor one person connected to Butler football each year with the newly named Butler Football Hometown Hero of the Year award. Leyland will be the first person to receive that honor.

“He's a good pick,” former Butler head coach Garry Cathell said of Leyland. “The loyalty he's had to the program and football in general in Butler has been incredible.

“Hank has no ego. He loves teaching the game. He's a wonderful, wonderful human being, always helpful, generous and welcoming. He was the first coach I hired when I came to Butler.

“The genuine, hard-working person that he is ... His popularity is based on that,” Cathell added.

Leyland served on the Butler High varsity staff for seven different head coaches: Art Bernardi, Tim Nunes, Bill Bohren, Sam Albert, Mark Farabee, Cathell and Jeff McAnallen. He remembers breaking into BAMFL coaching and working with Ralph Graham, Gene Manuel, Bruce Cornibe and Dick Galante.

And he lauded the assistant coaches on Bernardi's staff when he played: Jim Love, Gary Milanovich, Farabee, Nunes, Jim Kamerer, Bo Voelker, Bill Tack and Jack Lehew.

“How can you not be passionate about football when you're around people like that?,” he questioned.

Leyland was a tri-captain at Butler with Ed Hartman and Rodger Puz in 1978, “something I'm very proud of.” He guided the East Side Mustangs to the BAMFL title in 1999.

“The basis of who I am and my passion for football, absolutely, came from my father,” Leyland said. “But my older brothers, Mike and John, my wife Terry, children Emily, Trevor, Calvin and Levi, they've all shaped me as well.”

Leyland played defensive back and Kamerer was his position coach at Butler.

“Hank was a pleasure to coach,” Kamerer said. “He was an intense kid who came from a good family and he was always inspired by football.

“He was a knowledgeable player, very intelligent. I couldn't believe how quickly he picked things up. Show him a strategy, a new technique ... He got it.”

Ralph McElhaney, who along with Leyland was one of the original members of the Butler Football Hometown Hero committee, described Leyland as “passionate and committed.”

“Hank never said no,” McElhaney said. “You'd go to a midget league football game and you might see him cutting the grass, coaching a team, working the concession stand, picking up trash afterward.

“Whatever needed done, he did it. He'd do anything for anybody — an outstanding son, husband, father and friend.”

Chris Morrow worked with Leyland in the BAMFL. Leyland was one of his coaches when Morrow played for Butler High School.

“I've been his friend for 25 years. He's a special person. He's like a brother to me,” Morrow said. “Hank defined the coach-player relationship. He was like a father to his players.

“A lot of people in this town are better people because they worked for, with or beside Hank Leyland.”

Leyland considers himself to be the lucky one.

“The people I've been exposed to and have been able to learn from in coaching ... I've been blessed. It's that simple.

“I am a fortunate man.”