KELLY, John Brendan, Sr. ("Jack")

(b. 4 October 1889 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. 20 June 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), a leading American oarsman after World War I who won two Olympic gold medals in 1920 and one in 1924.

Kelly, the youngest of ten children, emerged from his modest background to become a wealthy business owner and the holder of three Olympic gold medals. His parents, John Henry Kelly, a wool mill worker, and Mary Ann Costello, emigrated from Ireland. Kelly attended elementary school in Philadelphia but dropped out in the eighth grade to work, like his father, at a local wool mill. In 1907 he went to work at his brother Patrick Kelly's brick-contracting firm, starting as a water boy and eventually becoming a superintendent. He also attended night classes at Spring Garden Institute, where he learned architectural drawing. During his free time he participated in football, baseball, basketball, and boxing.

Kelly devoted his athletic skill most seriously to sculling, a hobby he pursued so tirelessly that his mother worried he was neglecting other parts of his life. By the age of seventeen he began rising each morning at 6:00 A. M. to practice rowing on the Schuylkill River. He then worked from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 P. M. before returning to the river, where he practiced until dark. He trained all day on Sunday. Kelly began entering amateur sporting events and won his first competition in 1909. He excelled in single-oared competitions and as a partner with his cousin, Paul Costello, in double-oared competitions. He became a leading oarsman in the years before World War I, winning the American Henley in 1913 along with eight other races that year, and the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen's (NAAO) singles in 1914. He captured an impressive sixteen victories in 1916. In 1918 Kelly entered the U.S. Army and was stationed in France, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. He boxed to keep in shape, defeating twelve opponents in a heavyweight boxing tournament, but missed the opportunity to fight Gene Tunney because of a broken ankle. Kelly was determined to escape the Irish ghetto of his youth. Released from the service in 1919, he borrowed $7,000 from his brothers, the playwright George Kelly and the vaudeville performer Walter Kelly, to start a bricklaying business that ultimately made him a millionaire. He returned to rowing competitions in 1919, winning the national title. He also won the NAAO singles in 1919 and 1920 along with a series of other titles.

In 1920 Kelly bought a new shell for the Diamond Sculls at Henley, a prestigious English competition he planned to enter. He was preparing to depart for England when he received a telegram rejecting his entry. Kelly later recalled being devastated; he read the cable over and over, feeling that he had been rejected because he worked with his hands. While sportswriters often repeated the story, adding to Kelly's fame and mystique, the reason for his rejection was more complicated. Kelly admitted years later that the competition disallowed manual laborers because they would have an unfair advantage over "gentlemen." As a businessman, though, he probably still would have qualified. The problem ran deeper. A long-standing animosity existed between Kelly's rowing club, Vesper, and the Henley stewards over what constituted professionalism in rowing. Because the Vesper Rowing Club offered some financial support to its members, Henley considered them a semiprofessional outfit. Kelly's disqualification had more to do with a disagreement over the proper nature of the sport than class.

Nonetheless, Kelly sought to answer the slight, and his chance came in Antwerp, Belgium, at the 1920 Olympics. He had wanted to enter the games as early as 1912, a daunting feat for someone who lacked the experience of competing on a college team. The 1916 games were canceled due to World War I. In 1920 he tried out for the American Olympic rowing and sculling team, and to everyone's surprise except his own, he was chosen as a member. The press enjoyed the matchup between Kelly and Jack Beresford in the singles competition, presenting it as a contest between a down-to-earth American worker and an elite British rower. When Kelly won, most saw it as a vindication for his being passed over at Henley, though most papers failed to mention that Beresford, originally named Wiszniewski, was a first-generation Pole who also came from a working-class background. Kelly also won the double-sculls competition with Costello, an even more impressive feat considering that Kelly had only one hour to rest between events. When he returned to Philadelphia after the games, 100,000 people turned out to cheer him.

Upon his return Kelly began extensive training for the 1924 games, leading his fiancée to note that she could not compete with his boat for his affection. After he and Costello defended their double-sculls title in the Paris Olympics in 1924, Kelly returned to Philadelphia to concentrate on his bricklaying business and to start a family. He married Margaret Majer on 30 January 1924. They had four children, including the actress and princess Grace Kelly. John Kelly placed his greatest hope, however, in John Kelly junior, called "Kell." He pushed his son from the age of seven to practice rowing, leaving Kell little time for other activities. The younger Kelly eventually won the Diamond Sculls competition in 1947, the U.S. single-sculls championship eight times, and a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics. The elder Kelly retired from competing in 1926, but he remained involved as a patron and as a coach.

Kelly became involved in Philadelphia Democratic politics in the 1930s, serving as the chairman to the Democratic City Committee. He lost a close mayoral race in 1935 and a close Senate race in 1936. He served as Pennsylvania's secretary of revenue in 1936 and 1937 and remained active in Democratic politics through the 1950s. In 1952 he became the vice president of the Fairmount Park Commission, and in 1958 he became the organization's president. Kelly died from intestinal cancer in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery near that city.

Kelly won 126 competitions between 1909 and 1926, making him a legend within the sculling world. His feat of winning two gold medals, for single-and double-sculls, in one day was unprecedented. He promoted physical fitness for youngsters throughout his life, serving as chairman for the Federal Security Agency's Committee on Physical Fitness during World War II and establishing the John B. Kelly Award in 1945. He was elected into the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame in 1956 and was elected into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990.

Anne Edwards, The Grimaldis of Monaco (1992), provides a good overview of Kelly's early life. Benjamin Ivry, Regatta: A Celebration of Oarsmanship (1988), retells the story of Kelly's rejection by the Henley stewards in 1920; and David L. Porter, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Outdoor Sports (1988), includes a short entry outlining Kelly's sports career. Obituaries are in the New York Times (21 June 1960) and Time (11 July 1960).

Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.