At club level he played with Drom & Inch and was also a member of the Tipperary senior hurling team.
Butler first came to prominence at juvenile and underage levels with the Drom & Inch club, as well as lining out with Templemore CBS.
He made his senior debut at club level as a 15-year-old in 1966 and won two Mid Tipperary Championship titles in a career that spanned four decades.
[3] Butler was later drafted onto the Tipperary senior hurling team and made his debut against Limerick in the last game of the 1973-74 league.
His senior career coincided with a barren spell for Tipperary in terms of success, however, he won a National Hurling League medal in 1979, having claimed an All-Star the previous year.