Podcast Gery Bertier

Gary Boutir, a former American football player, discusses his experience playing for a racially integrated team in 1971. Initially resistant to the idea, he eventually accepted and formed close friendships with his new teammates. Gary also shares the story of an incident that left him paralyzed and unable to play for his team in the final games of the season. Despite this setback, he remained proud of his teammates and their accomplishments. Hello and good morning and welcome back to F1 104 with your host Maeve. Today we are joined with a very special guest, Gary Boutir. Hello Gary, welcome to the podcast and I hope you're doing good. Hello, I'm good and thank you very much for having me here today. So Gary, would you mind letting us know who you are for the listeners who don't know? Sure, my name is Gary Boutir and I was a high school American football player playing for the Titans in 1971. I played for the team when it racially integrated and that was a massive challenge for me as this is not something that had happened before. Gary, you mentioned the team racially integrating, how were you feeling when this occurred and how did you overcome it? When I first heard the news I knew that I wasn't going to like it. I was so used to playing on an all-white team and when this happened it was so new that it was going to take time for me to accept it as it happened. It was a struggle for me but I had to eventually get to know my new teammates as they were my new team and teams work together and it wasn't like the decision was going to switch by the team racially integrating. Did you make any close friends through football? Yes, I did actually but I didn't make it easy for myself to get to know new people. I made a really close friend, Judith, we really got closer as friends over the whole football season and it was great to think what new friends you can make if you put yourself out there. Julius is a great friend, he was always there for me, checking up on me after my incident when I got paralysed in the hospital. So I really appreciate him for everything he's done. You just mentioned your incident, what happened? Yes, so basically I was driving down the road at a slow pace and then all of a sudden another car came against me and that's all I can remember. I woke up in the hospital with the news that I was paralysed from my waist down. Thankfully I survived but it was a shock to all. How did you feel when you were out for the rest of the season? Yes, that was the worst part of it all. I was devastated not being able to play for my team for the last two games, one of them being the final. It was a huge disappointment for me, my family, my coaches, everyone. It was all a massive shock that no one would ever expect to happen. I had a small TV parched in front of my hospital so I wouldn't miss a game. I knew my team would carry on and they made me proud and they sure did. Derry, it's been a pleasure having you here with us today, thank you for everything. Thank you as well for having me here today, I really enjoyed it. That's it from us today on FM 104, hope you enjoyed and see you soon.