PENN TWP — “He marched to a different drummer.”

Those words may best describe the life of longtime Butler Country Club golfer, former restaurant owner and one-time professional baseball prospect Leo “Bucky” Parisi, who died Wednesday at age 81.

“Bucky was one of a kind,” continued longtime Butler sports broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser, who once teamed with Parisi to broadcast Butler High School baseball games and hosted a local radio sports talk show with him for nearly 20 years.

“It was Bucky's idea to start that show,” Lokhaiser said of the longtime Saturday morning program. “I talked to the station manager and we made it happen.”

Parisi teased Bud Daum — the third member of the show — about the latter's passion for NASCAR racing. Parisi was never a fan of the sport.

“When they say a driver wins the pole for a race, does that mean he gets to take it home with him?,” Parisi would joke, infuriating Daum.

Bruce Cummings, who referred to Parisi as his best friend, golfed with him for years at Butler Country Club. The pair were members there for more than 40 years.

He said Parisi didn't know who Dickson Forbes was as Lokhaiser said on the air that Forbes had secured a hole-in-one at BCC.

“He only knew Dickson Forbes as Deke because that's what everybody called him,” Cummings said. “I golfed with Bucky after the show that morning and told him that Dickson was Deke.

“He replied that 'you never know with these blue bloods, what their real names are.' That was Bucky.”

Parisi started BCC's annual Ox Roast Tournament — a 54-hole, three-day two-man best ball event — 35 years ago. He ran that event for 14 years and teamed with good friend Ralph Simons — father of the late PGA pro Jim Simons — to play in it.

Parisi teamed with Cummmings to win the Ox Roast tourney in 2015. He scored his third of four career holes-in-one during that tournament. Parisi's last ace was in 2016.

Cummings was 77, Parisi 76 the year they won the Ox Roast event.

“With all of the rain we've had, the greens weren't up to the speed they normally are,” Parisi said of their victory. “That allowed a couple of old guys like us to sneak in and win it, I guess.”

“Bucky joked that if two guys our age could win it, the tournament wasn't tough enough,” Cummings said.

When it came to golf, Parisi didn't joke often.

“He was always so competitive,” longtime BCC member Ron West said. “I loved being his partner and I loved playing against him and beating him — or taking a beating from him.

“With Bucky, there was always the banter after and during the round. When the ball was teed up on the first hole, that's when it started. He was fun.”

Parisi was project coordinator for BCC's Jim Simons Memorial Shelter, which was constructed in 2007. Simons died in 2005.

A Ridgway High School graduate, Parisi was a standout catcher in baseball. He played halfback on the fooball team, also running track and playing basketball.

“He had great hand-eye coordination,” Cummings said. “When it came to sports, he never had to work at that.”

Parisi was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers out of high school, but his father made him go to college. He hit two home runs over the fence at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh during an American Legion game.

Drafted into the Army, Parisi was at a boot camp in Georgia before a general from Fort Jackson in South Carolina pulled him out “because the base team needed a catcher,” Cummings said. “Bucky played ball for Fort Jackson for two years.”

He eventally spent a few years in the minor leagues with the Dodgers — getting as high as Class AAA — and caught eventual Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax in spring training.

Parisi came to Butler to become a teacher, driver education instructor and assistant baseball coach at Butler High School. He coached with eventual Butler County Sports Hall of Famer Don Dombart.

Parisi's wife, Su, was the first girls basketball coach at Butler High School and was posthumously inducted into the BCSHOF in 2018. Parisi delivered the acceptance speech on her behalf.

Parisi owned the The Rusty Nail restaurant in Butler.

“Bucky owned a restaurant in Titusville, two in Indiana and one in Butler, all at the same time, and still played golf seven days a week,” Lokhaiser said. “He was something else.”