Quertinmont part of WVU Hall of Fame Class of 2023
The late Fayette County 缅北禁地 Hall of Famer Jules “Buddy” Quertinmont received a long overdue honor this weekend as he was inducted into the West Virginia University 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame on Saturday.
“He would definitely have his chest pumped out that’s for sure,” Quertinmont’s son Buddy J stated.
“He would be so honored, he really would,” Quertinmont’s widow Brenda stated. “He was the MC for this group for so many years and people would say you’re in the Hall of Fame and he would say, oh no, not at West Virginia I’m not good enough to be in the Hall of Fame at West Virginia. So when they called us I had never met the president or new athletic director and I’m not accepting the honor at the brunch, I’m sending my daughter. But he would be thrilled and so honored and to be in there with so many of his friends that just tops it off.”
Quertinmont starred at Point Marion for three years and at Albert Gallatin High School after the merger of Point Marion and Masontown.
Albert Gallatin won the section title in Quertinmont’s senior year and he topped all Pennsylvania high school players in scoring in 1960-61 with 687 points.
Quertinmont garnered second team All-State honors as a junior and was first team All-State as a senior. He was on the All-County team as a sophomore, junior and a senior. Quertinmont tallied 1,379 points in his high school career.
After he graduated from Albert Gallatin in 1961, Quertinmont was recruited heavily.
Point Marion was only 9 miles away from the West Virginia University campus and the Mountaineers were at the top of his list.
The legendary Fred Schaus recruited Quertinmont, but left to coach the Lakers and George King became the coach and he honored the scholarship that Schaus had offered.
Quertinmont became part of the great basketball tradition at WVU.
“He was a Mountaineer,” Buddy J offered. “He wanted to be a Mountaineer going back to when he was a kid and of course Hot Rod Hundley was his hero and that kind of solidified his fandom with West Virginia. Dad had two childhood heroes, Hundley and Dick Groat, and I think he appreciated Groat for his athleticism and dad was happy when he chose not to go to Pitt, that’s how much dad hated Pitt.”
He was top scorer on WVU’s 1961-62 freshman team, averaging 24.3 points. That was the fourth-highest mark in freshman history. After playing behind All-America guard Rod Thorn as a sophomore, Quertinmont was a starter his last two seasons. He averaged 10.3 ppg in 1963-64 and 14.5 ppg in 1964-65. He tallied 20 points or more in a game 10 times as a Mountaineer.
During his three years in Morgantown he rang up 689 points, 178 rebounds and 97 assists in 68 games. WVU posted records of 23-8, 18-10 and 14-15 during an injury riddled senior season. The Mountaineers won the Southern Conference championships and earned NCAA tournament berths in his sophomore and senior seasons.
Some of the highlights from his days in Morgantown were a 32-point outburst against Duke in 1965. He also notched 30 points against George Washington.
When he graduated from WVU Quertinmont decided to play in the old Eastern Basketball League. Quertinmont stayed active playing in all the independent tournaments.
When Quertinmont got basketball out of his system he married the former Brenda Smith and his father got ill and at the end of 1970 he took over the family business, Point Marion Ford.
Quertinmont ran Point Marion Ford until his retirement in 2012. Through it all he was a loyal Mountaineer.
In addition to Quertinmont, the 2023 class includes Trevor Gathman (rifle), Bruce Irvin (football), TeShawne Jackson (gymnastics), Jay Jacobs (broadcaster), and Renee Riccio (women’s swimming & diving). This class brings the total number of inductees to 229.
Induction ceremonies were scheduled to take place Saturday prior to the West Virginia-Texas Tech football game. The inductees also were to be recognized at halftime of the football game.
“He had said several times because he was on the Hall of Fame committee and people would say to him you are going to be going in soon and he would say no I’m not that caliber,” daughter Lori Martin said. “This is something incredibly special and I think him being inducted is everybody showing that they think he was the same caliber and pretty special as well.”
“It’s a shame he’s not around to enjoy it because he did so much work getting other people into the Hall of Fame,” former WVU basketball coach Gale Catlett said, “being on the nominating committee and helping WVU athletics anyway he could, particularly the basketball program. It’s a shame that he’s not still with us to enjoy it because he would be on the top of his game if he was here for the induction no doubt about that.”
Quertinmont was the ringleader of his WVU teammates from the 1960s. Many of them will be at the induction ceremony.
“He was referred to as the glue that held them all together,” Martin opined. “His teammates from the 60s, he was the ringmaster of getting them back for parties and reunions and keeping them in contact with each other. His legacy I feel is what he contributed to the university after his playing days. Helping start The Wheels Program, getting vehicles for every coach, and that enabled them to recruit. Just so many behind-the-scenes things that he did. Any player that needed help, he offered it, and without any kind of acknowledgment and without anybody knowing about it and he didn’t want recognition. He just wanted to do whatever he could to help WVU athletics in particular thrive.”
“Buddy and I were freshmen together,” former WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong recalled. “We became very good friends. Buddy was instrumental in one of the most important programs for WVU Athletics and that was The Wheels Club, he was the originator of that. He was proud to be a Mountaineer.”
Quertinmont passed away Sunday, Dec, 3, 2017, in Morgantown at the age of 74.
“I think everybody that knew him knew that the WVU Hall of Fame would happen,” former Mountaineer, now Pastor Junius Lewis, a member of the WVU Hall of Fame Board, stated. “It’s a shame that it didn’t happen while he was alive, but at the same time his whole entire family will be there and I’m excited for the entire Quertinmont family.”
Quertinmont did so many things for his alma mater, and he was also instrumental in the formation of the Fayette County 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame. In 2014, Quertinmont was honored to be inducted into the Fayette County 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame.
“I knew Buddy back in the Uniontown playground days, back in the days on the playgrounds where he was a significant player,” Fayette County 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Chris Cluss offered.
“I got to know him as a person with the Hall of Fame group when it started 15 years ago and he was a leader of the Hall of Fame along with George Von Benko and others. Buddy was a calming influence, he negotiated, he mediated and really became a really good friend. I got to know him and Brenda and the entire family and he’s a guy that I always held with the utmost respect.”
We will give the last word to Pastor Lewis.
“I think that what he did is the true testimony of a giver,” Lewis said. “The old people used to say don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing and I think for Buddy he helped numerous people on so many occasions, not just people associated with the university, but in his own community and I think that’s what I appreciate so much about Buddy and Brenda, that they were givers.”
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