John 'Butch' Liput: Voice of the Burrell Bucs, Alle-Kiski Valley hall-of-famer, aluminum bat pioneer, dies

John “Butch” Liput Jr. of Lower Burrell, was the “Voice of the Burrell Bucs” for more than four decades and one of the most recognizable voices in Lower Burrell sports history.

Liput, who had been around Burrell football as the public address announcer at Buccaneer Stadium, died Friday at age 89.

“He was a stalwart of the community,” said longtime Valley News Dispatch contributing sportswriter George Guido.

Liput retired from his duties as Burrell’s football game public address announcer after the 2022 season, Guido said. Liput knew a couple of generations of Burrell football players through his announcing, Guido noted.

Liput told the Tribune-Review in a 2019 story that serving as the public address announcer, “keeps me feeling younger and keeps me in contact with the kids.”

As good as he was, with ” a nice voice” for announcing, his style did not always endear him to opposing teams at Burrell Stadium. There were times he would fall into the role of play-by-play announcing and reveal the opposing team’s formation.

Liput said his time announcing football games started by chance, when he did announcing for the Lower Burrell Flyers, a youth football organization. He took over the job when the previous Burrell High public address announcer decided to quit.

John Kristof assisted Liput in his first game and worked with him for many years.

Kristof reminisced on sharing the mic with his longtime friend at Lower Burrell games. It all started, he recalled, when the two realized before the first game of the season one year that there was no announcer.

“We just took the microphone,” Kristof said, and went back-and-forth announcing the game.

“He enjoyed it very much — until he had a hard time a couple years ago going up the steep steps at the top of the press box,” Kristof said.

Once Liput was no longer able to attend all of Burrell’s football and basketball games, Kristof said, he would go and call his friend afterwards to give him the final score and his analysis of who played well.

“I know he enjoyed me keeping him up to speed,” he said.

Kristof, 87, of Lower Burrell, said he’d been friends with Liput since they were teenagers. They watched their grandkids at sporting events together and talked frequently, he said.

“He was a good guy,” Kristof said. “We were just good friends.”

Liput also announced the starting lineups and senior nights for Burrell’s boys and girls basketball games.

He was born in Arnold on Jan. 6, 1935, to the late John J. Liput Sr. and Elizabeth Rose Radziewicz Liput.

Liput studied engineering for a year at Ohio State University before taking a job as a researcher at Alcoa.

It’s during his time at Alcoa that Liput would make Little League history. The company was testing aluminum bats for various companies. Liput supervised the seven-member metallurgical team that handled the project at the Alcoa Technical and Research Center in Upper Burrell.

He obtained one from his employer and his son, Jim, tested it out for the first time in a game in July 15, 1971. The boy hit four home runs in that Lower Burrell Little League game. Guido said Jim batted .543 that year — good enough to convince others to use the bat.

Other organizations were quick to replace as many wooden bats as they could with aluminum ones.

By the end of the 1970s, young players across the county were swinging aluminum bats. Organizations were saving money by not having to replace as many bats.

Liput kept the original bat at his home, in what could be described as a family hall of fame.

Liput coached Lower Burrell Little League for a few years. He also ran a coed intramural basketball program for the district for about 30 years.

“I’m a Burrell person through and through. I bleed blue,” he told the Tribune-Review in 2019.

He retired as an Alcoa researcher after more than 43 years. He received recognition from the company for never missing a day of work.

Liput also was a WPIAL basketball referees for decades.

Liput was inducted into the Allegheny-Kiski Valley Hall of Fame in 2009 for his efforts in youth sports.

He was the team captain and played third base for the Hubby’s USSSA World Slow Pitch Softball champs in 1969.

Surviving are his wife of 68 years, JoAnn Stefanini Liput; children, John (Kacie) Liput, Judi (Bob) Reifschneider, Jayne (Jay) Manga, Joni Pattock, and Jill (Derick) Coury; 19 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren; and a brother and sister. He was preceded in death by a son, James C. Liput, and a sister, Lucille Carr.

Friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at The Rusiewicz of Lower Burrell Funeral Home, 3124 Leechburg Road at Alder Street. A Christian Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Margaret Mary Church, 3055 Leechburg Road. Burial will be private.