Athletics Hall of Fame
Joseph W. Kelley '38 was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987. Kelley played quarterback for the Hawks football team, serving as the field leader during the early years of Saint Anselm’s football glory. In the undefeated 1936 season, in Head Coach Cleo O’Donnell’s second year, newspaper headlines recounted the victories on the field, “Here is a passer who can hit the proverbial dime with his south-paw shots. When Kelley starts flipping the pigskin into the receiver’s hands, the opposing coaches feel the urge to call out the National Guard to put a halt to the damage.”
In October 1936, Kelley hit his targets at will against a strong Ithaca College team, a brilliant exhibition of passing read the press. Not only did he pass with precise perfection, but also he kicked the extra points. Against the University of New Hampshire, the campus newspaper noted that Kelley “let fly so many of his south paw passes that the UNH team thought that he had a gun tucked beneath his jersey and was shooting at them.” In 1937, he was named to the International News Services All-New England team.
