To live is Christ and to die is gain.

"That was Eddie Hartman's favorite Christian verse," retired Geneva College football coach Gene Sullivan said. "His death was so difficult to handle, but knowing that verse helped me through it.

"Eddie left far too soon, but he is where he wants to be."

Hartman, a 1979 Butler graduate and 1983 Geneva College graduate, was killed in an automobile accident May 27, 1983, two weeks after graduating from college and the night before he was to marry high school sweetheart Mary Beth Diamond.

"It was stunning … You just didn't believe it at first," said Ron Cygan, a Butler basketball teammate of Hartman's. "He was like the golden boy. You couldn't find a better person.

"I wish all of my kids can grow up like him."

"Losing Ed Hartman was like losing my own son," Sullivan said.

Longtime Butler sports broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser refers to Hartman as one of the best three-sport athletes to ever come out of Butler.

Hartman was quarterback and starting guard on Golden Tornado football and basketball teams that went to the WPIAL playoffs. He ran the 1,600 meters in track in four minutes and 17 seconds in 1978.

Twenty-six years later, that remains the fastest time in that event in Butler County history.

"He had all the impact of Troy Nunes, Tyrell Sales, probably more," Lokhaiser said. "He was the best all-around athlete I've seen at Butler High School.

"More than that, he was one of the finest young men I've ever met. He was a true gentleman."

Longtime Butler football coach Art Bernardi said Hartman was one of those kids a coach comes across "once or twice in a lifetime.

"I wish I had a son like him, I wish every athlete was like him," Bernardi said. "Eddie had all of the ideals you'd like to see in every kid.

"I had a lot of one-on-one talks with Eddie when he played for me. His father was a minister and his goal in life was to be a minister," Bernardi added.

Hartman's college roommate, Keith Myers, was also killed in the crash that took Hartman's life. A Hartman-Myers Scholarship Fund was formed shortly afterward.

The Geneva College football program annually presents the Ed Hartman Memorial Award to a player who exhibits similar leadership skills and passion for the game.

Hartman's jersey No. 11 joins the No. 27 of Larry Bruno and No. 36 of Cal Hubbard as the only numbers to be retired in Geneva football history.

"The other players could tell how Eddie handled himself," Sullivan said. "He had the leadership qualities you wanted in a quarterback. He stayed calm and did his job.

'When he walked into the huddle, the other guys knew they better be paying attention."

Hartman's intelligence - he graduated cum laude from college with a degree in social and political science - enabled Butler to run the veer offense and Geneva to run the Wing-T with an I-formation.

"I was never committed to the option game," Sullivan said. "But Eddie was starting for us as a freshman and by the time he entered his sophomore year, we were using the option.

"He was just a magician. Quick hands and quick feet, that kid could make things happen."

John Minehart was a sophomore running back on the 1977 Butler team that tied Penn Hills 7-7 in the WPIAL championship game.

Minehart scored on a running play off an option pitch from Hartman to give the Tornado a 7-0 lead before the stadium lights went out and the game had to be finished the next day.

"Eddie pulled off a great fake and gave me the ball at the last second," Minehart said. "I mean, I had totally open field in front of me for 25 yards or so. I could have walked in.

"That play was in the championship game, but Eddie did that kind of stuff all the time."

Hartman's leadership dated back to his midget football days, when he led Meridian to three consecutive Butler Area Midget Football League championships.

Two of those teams went undefeated. One went unscored upon.

"At one stretch, Butler's starting backfield were kids from those Meridian teams," said Tom Fry, a fullback on the 1977-78 Tornado squads.

"Jeff Hortert was Eddie's go-to receiver. He was a good passing quarterback who ran the option well. He was the key to those teams, no doubt about it."

"He was just dynamic," Bernardi said. "He didn't have a strong throwing arm, but it was accurate. And Eddie knew the offense inside and out.

"He was a quiet leader. I never knew a kid who was more respected."

Jamie Smith followed in Hartman's footsteps as quarterback at Butler - running the same veer attack - and went on to break Hartman's records at Geneva.

Hartman scored 699 points in basketball and was a tri-captain with Ed Bresnahan and Mark Smith his senior year.

Hartman was inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. Smith joined him there this year.

"If we had the 3-point line in affect back then, Eddie would have scored a lot more points," Bresnahan said. "He consistently sank shots from way out.

"He was a tremendous athlete. He wasn't a tall player, but his quickness did it for him."

Bresnahan was also impressed by how Hartman handled his athletic success.

"Eddie was always polite, never arrogant," he said. "Everybody liked that kid. He never did anything wrong. He was like the perfect kid."

Hartman helped Butler's 1978-79 basketball team reach the playoffs for the first time in nearly 17 years.

"Eddie was always focused, always ready to play," Smith said. "He had a great attitude.

"He never smoke, never drank. He was a great role model for everyone. He was fun to be around and I'm honored to have been his teammate."

"A quick kid with a good head on his shoulders," Lokhaiser said. "Eddie was knowledgeable, intelligent and athletic."

"A true leader in every sport he played," Cygan said. "Eddie Hartman was a class act.

Minehart paused when asked the best way to describe Hartman.

"A good human," he said. "Sounds simple, but we need more of them."