Bertolino Photo Gallery
Philadelphia - The University of Pennsylvania football team is establishing the Michael Bertolino Memorial Scholarship in honor of the former Quaker offensive lineman who tragically lost his life in a car accident in December of 2003.
This fund will be awarded to a Penn football student-athlete, preferably from a Catholic school in the North Jersey region, upon enrollment with the University. The announcement of the fund came at the 2004 Penn Football Awards Banquet with Michael’s mother, Constance, and sister, Claudia Harper) in attendance. Penn football would like to thank its staff, friends and family of Michael and George A. Weiss for helping to establish this memorial scholarship.
“Mike was a tremendous player and a great kid and for those that were lucky enough to have known him recognize what an outstanding student-athlete and an even better person,” Bagnoli praised of his former fallen player. “We want to award this scholarship to a student-athlete that best exemplifies the ideals that endured so well within Mike. We do this so that we may carry on his ideals forever forth.”
Former Penn teammate Jason Feinberg echoes Bagnoli’s comments. “It was impossible to spend any time around Mike without laughing. ?Bert’ had the most infectious personality of anyone I have ever met. Whether you were a waiter for his table, a professor for his class, his best friend or a complete stranger all Bert needed was one conversation with you and you were hooked. I actually think his incredible talent to constantly have fun and make people laugh at times overshadowed how talented he was on the football field and how intelligent he was. If I have ever met one person who took advantage of every second he had on earth it was Mike Bertolino,” Feinberg remembered.
Long-time friend John Holahan added, “When I think of Mike, as a player and more importantly as a person, I really smile and think of laughter and good times. Mike brought happiness wherever he went, he could make the dull aspects of this life exciting, and the bleak ones, instantly optimistic. He really was somebody everybody considered a friend, from the vendor on the street to the teammate in the locker room.”
The effect Michael had on people within the Penn football community reach even those who did not play with him but knew him outside the walls of Franklin Field. Penn football alumni Gary Vura came to know Michael better when he was an intern at Bloomberg during the summers of 1999 and 2000.
“I still live in denial that Mike is gone. I feel his spirit often. He interned for me during the summer of 1999 and 2000. Everyone loved him. On the morning of 9/11, he was the first person to email me to see if I was ok, his comment was "I hope you don't respond to this email" obviously hoping I was leaving the building. He was a model Penn young alumni. His memory and spirit will live on with thisscholarship. I still struggle that he is not with us, I do not want to believe it. His love, graciousness and big bear hugs are still with me,” said Vura.
Michael, son of Mario and Constance, was a 2000 Wharton graduate and hailed from Montvale, N.J. and played at St. Joseph’s. He was a letterwinner on Penn’s 1998 Ivy League championship team that finished the season 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the Ancient Eight.
Written by Mat Kanan, associate director of athletic communications
