Pat Egolf looks at her big brother Mike Leckrone, or more specifically the flamboyant outfits he’s fond of wearing at the head of the UW-Madison marching band, and simply shakes her head with a smile.

“It’s not what we saw back here,” she said in an interview in the Manchester, Indiana school library, just a few miles from where they grew up. “It amazes me how he’s at the university with the sparkle jackets and the way he talks to the audience because he was rather laid-back.”

The portrait of the legendary UW band director starts with his father, Harold Leckrone, who students called “Leck.” He was a perfectionist, an avid and prolific composer, writing the Manchester High School fight song that was used as the fictional Hickory High’s song in the movie “Hoosiers.”

That attention to detail was not lost on Mike. However, his style and flair came from his mother.

“My father was very quiet,” Pat said. “He’d give you a big smile, but you’d better do and play as he says.”

Growing up in a small Indiana town in the 1940s and 50s, there were two extracurricular activities every boy aspired to participate in: basketball and band. During his time in high school, Mike was in the varsity starting five and served as first trumpet in the band, often pulling double duties during games.

“At halftime, he would run as soon as the buzzer went off, straight to the dressing room, jump in a band uniform because the high school band put on a show on the gym floor just like they do at the football fields now,” Pat said.

Leckrone, who graduated from the now-closed down Chester High School, was given a distinguished alumni award from the Manchester School District last summer. He was valedictorian of his 1954 class and followed in his father’s footsteps to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from Butler University and Indiana University.

“Everything was so simple for him,” Pat said. “It was just natural for him, anything he did.”

His love of music came through at an early age, said Tom Airgood, who played the trombone in the high school band with Mike. Even after basketball games, he’d gather some of the band members for a 1950s version of a jam session.

“We would play together some extra down in the locker room, impromptu jazz,” Airgood said. “We’d play extra stuff from our usual pieces. We had a lot of fun with it.”

Leckrone’s love of jazz may be the one negative he’s left with his younger sister. She said his passion for it and the cramped nature of their three-bedroom house leaves her unable to enjoy it to this day.

“He played it all the time,” she said with a sigh. “It’s not like it’s a song either. He’d play up and down keys, and he was always in his room blasting away. That just wasn’t for me.”