• Three-time CIAU champion in wrestling, also winning five Canadian championships in freestyle and one in Greco Roman wrestling.
• Represented Canada in many international events, including two Olympic Games, two Pan American Games, one Commonwealth Games, four World Wrestling Championships, three World Cups, and two World Masters Championships.
• Placed sixth in his field as a member of the 1972 Olympic team; won a silver medal at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, bronze at the World Championships, gold, silver, and bronze at the World Cup, and gold and silver at the World Masters Championships.
• Canada's first World Wrestling Championship medalist, winning bronze in 1974; co-captain of the 1976 Olympic wrestling team.
• Went on to be technical director of the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association, associate coach of the Golden Bears wrestling team, and co-founder of the National Capital Wrestling Club in Ottawa.

Although he was small in physical stature, Gordon Bertie (BSc ’72; Bed ’74) was a “giant” in inter-university wrestling from 1969 to 1975. Within this time frame he won three freestyle CIAU championships, five Canadian national championships and one Canadian national Greco Roman championship.

Gord’s sport of wrestling extends back from the modern era to times before the use of the written word. It is a sport found in almost every culture throughout time. Today wrestling is recognized in virtually every modern multisport, multinational competition as a premiere event. And Gord has represented Canada well in this premiere sport: two Olympic games teams, two Pan American Games teams, the 1974 Commonwealth Games team (where he was a silver medalist), four World Wrestling Championships, three World Cups, and the 1993 and 1995 World Masters championships (where he won gold and silver respectively). In the 1972 Munich Olympics, Gord places 6th overall and in 1976 he was named co-captain of the wrestling team, a clear indication of the high esteem attributed to this great athlete. World Wrestling Championships are intense competitions, but Gord was such an outstanding wrestler that in the 1969 Worlds, he represented Canada in both the Free Style and Greco Roman events. In 1971, 1974 and 1975 he competed in Free Style, winning a bronze medal in 1974 – the first World Wrestling Championship medalist for Canada. In the 1974 World Cup of Wrestling, Gord won a bronze medal, in 1975 he won the gold and in 1976 the silver – a world class athlete without question. In 1975 this Sports Wall of Fame inductee competed in a pre-Olympic tournament in Montreal and captured the silver medal in both Free Style and Greco Roman wrestling.

Gordon Bertie in an amazing athlete. His competitive career has spanned four decades and he has been an outstanding performer throughout that span. An impressive aspect of Gord’s career is that he succeeded, even thrived, in the best wrestling competitions in the world. Few other Canadian wrestlers, in any weight class, ever achieved his high standard of athletic performance.

In addition to the contributions which Gord has made to wrestling throughout his years as an active competitor, he has added to the development of the sport as a Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association (CAWA) Technical Director from 1977-1980. The University of Alberta wrestling program, too, has benefited from Gord’s knowledge of the sport. He has served as an associate coach of the Bears’ wrestling team from 1981 to 1997. In 1997 Gord was a co-founder of the National Capital Wrestling Club in Ottawa.

As a world class competitive athlete and as a builder of his sport, Gord has been an outstanding leader. He has been a great representative of our University and he is a wonderful addition to our Sports Wall of Fame.