Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
We lost a legend last week.
Bill Kelly, one of our region’s best offensive-minded college football coaches of all time, died Saturday.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported Kelly, 75, died in Amarillo after an extended bout with pneumonia.
The North Carolina native will be most remembered by many for his three seasons coaching at then-West Texas State University, from 1985 to 1987. His Buffs went 18-13-1 before Kelly stunned many in the sports world by switching careers at age 40. He spent his last four decades as a criminal defense attorney.
I’ll remember Kelly more for his time at Eastern New Mexico University where he was head football coach in 1983 and 1984.
The pass-happy Greyhounds went 13-7-1 under Kelly’s leadership, including an NAIA quarterfinals game in 1983 – the university’s first football playoff appearance. His teams scored more than 40 points six times in those two years. ENMU beat Southern Colorado, 70-13, on Oct. 6, 1984.
Probably Kelly’s greatest coaching success at Eastern came Sept. 15, 1984. The ’Hounds were on the road, in Ada, Okla., and all seemed lost with 2 minutes to play in the third quarter. ENMU trailed East Central, Okla., 46-14.
Kelly was willing his team to never give up when quarterback Kevin Kott connected with wide receiver Steve Jackson for a 20-yard touchdown pass.
It was all Greyhounds after that.
ENMU scored 29 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and won the game, 50-46.
“We felt we were in better physical condition than they were,” Kelly told the Portales News-Tribune after the win, explaining the late-game heroics.
ECU was ranked No. 6 in the nation before that game. The Greyhounds needed just 11 minutes to score those last five touchdowns.
Twice in 1984, Kelly’s Greyhounds were ranked No. 1 in NAIA polls.
“Kelly’s vaunted passing attack produced the nation’s leading air attack for the past two seasons,” the PN-T reported when Kelly announced plans to leave for WT.
“In two seasons under Kelly, the Greyhounds set seven team and 25 individual school records.”
Kelly was known as a fiery coach and that passion carried over into his career as an attorney.
“Fiercest lawyer I ever faced in the courtroom!” polygraph examiner Jimmy Stevens wrote on a Facebook tribute page for Kelly.
“I always said if I was in serious trouble with the law, Bill was in the top three of attorneys I would call to help me.”
Godspeed, coach. Thanks for your competitive spirit, on the football field and beyond.
David Stevens is publisher of Clovis Media Inc. Email him at: