Gerry Bertier

About

Gerry Bertier ( GHERR-ee; August 20, 1953 – March 20, 1981) was a high school American football player and Paralympian. He became known for his participation on the 1971 Virginia State Champion football T. C. Williams High School team, and their portrayal in the Disney film Remember the Titans. Bertier was also the nephew of Howie Livingston. After the conclusion of the 1971 season, Bertier was involved in an automobile crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Despite this injury, Bertier attended Northern Virginia Community College and remained an active athlete, participating in the Paralympics. In 2006, Bertier’s family started the “Bertier #42 Foundation”, dedicated to raising money for research on spinal cord injuries. There is also a gymnasium at Alexandria City High School (formerly T.C. Williams High School) that bears his name.

Bertier’s parents divorced when he was around age eight and he was raised primarily by his mother until she remarried Robert Agnew. As a child and young man, Bertier was described as an amiable, goal-oriented individual. Growing up, he frequently discussed his lifetime goal of winning a gold medal in the Olympics, and, as an…