Nastasi was more than a legend
Former Butler football great James “Buster” Nastasi was more than a legend.
“He was my hero,” said fellow Butler graduate and longtime Major League Baseball scout Ben McLure. “I looked up to him. Every player coming up (through school) behind him did.”
Nastasi died Friday at age 81. He was inducted into the Butler County Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1973. A guard/middle linebacker for the Golden Tornado, he went on to play football at Geneva College and earned Little All-America honors.
“Buster wasn't very big, but he was tough as nails,” longtime Butler broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser said. “I mean, he would knock your block off.
“I believe he's one of the top 10 football players to ever come out of Butler.”
Nastasi played at Butler in the mid-1950s. He was a standout track and field athlete for the Golden Tornado and was a stellar catcher in the Butler Prep League.
In the late 1950's, Geneva changed its nickname from the Covenanters to the Golden Tornado, in memory of a 1914 tornado that struck the campus, but injured no one.
“So they called it a Golden Tornado,” McLure said.
The name change occurred around the time Nastasi was playing for Geneva.
“Much notice was made of a Golden Tornado All-American, playing for the Golden Tornado,” McLure said.
Nastasi stood only 5-foot-8 and weighed 170 pounds when he played. Butler football player Dan Donovan (1951) went on to play for Army. Bill Saul and Dale Betty (1958) went on to play at Penn State and Maryland, respectively.
“I remember Bill Saul telling me one time that if he could be as good as Buster, he would be a Hall of Famer,” McLure said. “He commanded that much respect among his teammates.
“Bill Saul was bigger and stronger than Buster, but Buster was a better football player. Cappy (then Butler football coach A.G. Capezzuti) said that if Buster was a little bigger, he could have played at a major Division I school. He probably could have played Division II as it was.”
Lokhaiser described Nastasi as a “nice guy” off the field.
“He was never cocky, never flamboyant. He just did his job,” he said.
One of McLure's favorite traits about Nastasi was never taking himself — nor sports — too seriously.
“I pitched in the Prep League and Buster was my catcher,” McLure recalled. “He'd come talk to me on the mound, a big grin on his face, telling me I could do this a little better, that a little better ... Buster just loved to play.
“Such an enjoyable person — I was probably his biggest fan. Midget Football players looked up to him back in the day. I mean, he was the standard.”
Lokhaiser said Eddie Hartman, killed in an automobile accident at a young age — is the greatest all-around athlete to ever come out of Butler. Hartman went on to play at Geneva College as well.
“But Buster Nastasi, he was right up there,” Lokhaiser insisted.
