Gerry Bertier

Gerry Bertier is one of the major characters in the 2000 Disney film, Remember the Titans. He is the football team captain of the T.C. Williams Titans Football Team. Upon the integration of the schools and the football team as a whole, Gerry would initially be hostile to teammates of African-American descent, in particular, Julius Campbell, whom he would get into conflict with. However, during his duration at training camp, Gerry fostered a friendship with the players of the other race, learning to value teamwork and unity over his racial prejudices. Humbled by his experiences, he strive to ensure that his fellow Caucasian teammates would learn to play alongside their African-American teammates. He also became the best friend of Julius Campbell.
Gerry Bertier is one of the Disney live-action characters that was based on an actual person with the same name.
==Background ==
Gerry Bertier was born to an unnamed father and Jean Bertier, growing up in the city of Alexandria, Virginia. At some point, his father died of unknown causes, leaving his mother to raise him up on her own. In his education years, Gerry attended Francis C. Hammond Middle School, where he joined the football team, playing under the head coach Bill Yoast and assistant coach Herb Tyrell. It was there where he became friends with Ray Budds, Alan Bosley as well as a few other football players. Bertier would also get acquainted with the coach's young daughter, Sheryl, considering that the daughter was always present with her father at the football practice. At some point, Bertier became team captain of the football team. However by 1971, Bertier, along with other students at Hammond Middle School would learn that their school would merge with another middle school into a race-diverse school called T.C. Williams High School.
===Personality===
Gerry is initially presented as a loyal, diligent, and committed football player as noted by Coach Yoast during one of the practice sessions. However he was also prone to making rash and decisions without forethought of the consequences, which is evident when he along with some of his teammates decided to ditch football practice to get involved with a street fight caused by an act of racial violence, which earned him a severe reprimand from both the coach and the assistant coach. Gerry was also not above showing bigotry and discrimination towards other races, as he openly derided the African-American community as 'animals' in front of a newly-appointed assistant head coach Herman Boone, who he later likened him to a criminal, upon learning that the latter was appointed as the new head coach. However these negative traits were addressed by Boone who, before a football training camp to Gettysburg, sternly told Gerry that if he wants to play on the Titans football team, he would do so regardless of race. 
During his time at football training camp at the Gettysburg Institute, Gerry's personality and character began to change for the better. Despite sometimes getting into fights with Julius Campbell or anyone in the team in general, Gerry started to begin to learn how to be more accepting, caring and tolerating of other teammates, even going as far as learning something new about his camp roommate. Gerry would show a fun and easily-amused side of himself, as evident as he was amused at Louie Lastik's cover version of "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by the Temptations or when he had a playful brawl with Julius during a practice football session at night. Despite his tendency to sometimes get into fights with his teammates, Gerry actually enjoys bonding with his teammates.
Gerry is shown to be a strict, but effective captain, wanting his teammates to do their parts properly. Gerry would be annoyed whenever the team would fail to do their jobs properly, shown when he got annoyed at the defense team for failing to tackle an offense player in possession of the ball, calling them out for showboating. Similarly, he would be annoyed at members of the offense team for not doing their jobs properly as well, in particular, Ray Budds, going as far as to openly reprimand him in front of other players. Gerry was also capable of making fair decisions, no matter the consequences, when he decided cut Ray off the team due to the latter's blatant bigotry and refusal to work with others. On the other hand, Gerry would show praise for his teammates when they did their jobs correctly, such as expressing joy when Petey held onto the ball during the finals.
Gerry was also resilient in hard times. This is evident when he was paralyzed from the waist down. Although devastated at the fact that he was not able to play, Gerry was able to remain optimistic, cheering and supporting his team on from his hospital bed when they played. He was also determined to not allow his paralysis limit him, which is evident when he trained and participated in the Paralympics near the end of the movie.
Gerry could also show a bit of immaturity at times, which could earn him a reprimand from the coaches. An example of this would be making an inappropriate remark to a new team-mate who was about to join the team, calling him a 'fruit-cake' because of said teammate having very long hair, to which Coach Yoast told him to keep his mouth shut.
===Physical appearance===
===Powers and abilities===
==Appearances==
==Gallery==
==Trivia ==
*Gerry was given the nickname "Superman" by Julius Campbell, who refused to take down a poster of the 1968 Olympics, sarcastically quipping that Gerry should use "x-ray vision" to look through the wall of the cabin that he was sharing with Gerry.
* Contrary to the film, in real-life, Gerry's paralysis occurred after playing the final game of the season.
*Also, unlike the film, Gerry's dad did not die in Gerry's early life. Rather, his parents divorced when Gerry was a child, and Gerry's mother would later re-marry.
==References==
==External links==
Category:Live-action characters
Category:Deceased characters
Category:Characters based on real people
Category:Athletes
Category:Heroes
Category:Disney characters
Category:Males
Category:Adults
Category:Remember the Titans