The history of Bud Leach as told by Mackenzie Smith:
“John and I have been the best of friends for more than 50 years going back to high school days and that was when Oliver Ames was in the yellow brick building on Lincoln Street. John was a good and serious student, but he always lamented that he was not a very good athlete. Well, maybe he wasn’t when compared to guys like Jim Elson, Billy Baxter and others, but he was a better athlete than he gave himself credit for. He played on the Oliver Ames baseball team and his moment of glory came when he hit a grand slam home run to win an important game for OA. The next day the headline on the sports page of the Brockton Enterprise read: Bud Leach hits grand slam – wins game for OA. They misspelled his name. Forever after if someone did not get proper attribution for an important accomplishment it was known as a “Bud Leach.”