(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A man who was a familiar sight -- and sound -- at Cubs games has died.
Theodore “Ted” Butterman died last Wednesday at the age of 87. An Arlington Heights horn player, Butterman led the Dixieland jazz band that delighted Cubs fans for decades. He also played guitar for a swing quintet in Long Grove and led the Gold Coast Jazz Band.
Butterman played trumpet for more than three decades at Wrigley Field. He knew 560 songs -- mostly Dixieland and Swing -- and performed during thousands of games as part of a quintet that roamed the stands dressed in blue pinstriped uniforms.
Butterman told WBBM seven years ago that when he started the band in 1982, fans hadn’t heard anything like it and the group brought a smile to a lot of faces even though the Cubs were losing.
Butterman said that he and the band, always dressed in a full blue Cubs uniform, only had 1 minute and 20 seconds to play during the game, so they gave it their all for 1 minute and 20 seconds.
Butterman will be buried at Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park.
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