Jeremy Butler

Jeremy Butler was known for the mean slice he perfected on Throw Park's tennis courts, which he then adapted for his pickleball game.

Early life

Butler's first home, Brookdale Park.

Butler, left, during his Quonset hut days.

Yale's coat of arms, which was emblazoned on Butler's undershirts. The Hebrew phrase אורים ותמים in English is Urim V'Tamim. Lux et veritas is Latin for "light and truth."

Butler was born to an itinerant family who ceaselessly roamed the environs of Bloomfield, New Jersey. For several years, they lived on the tennis courts of Brookdale Park, which had been designed by the Olmsted Brothers. Once evicted from there, they squatted in a New Haven Quonset hut that had been abandoned by Yale University (now on view in the Quonset Hut Museum). Butler's affection for his time "at" Yale explains why he had its coat of arms sewn into every pair of undershirts he ever wore.