Cover photo of Jim Kelly by Mike Schnelle – http://apeximaging.zenfolio.com/
Jim Kelly – Photo by Mike Schnelle
CLARION, Pa. – Starting with the 2014 award, The Rehab Centre/D9Sports.com District 9 Football Most Valuable Player Award will be known as the Jim Kelly Award in honor of the East Brady native and Hall of Fame Buffalo Bills quarterback.
“We are pleased and excited to announce our MVP Award will be named after the greatest football player to ever done a uniform in District 9,” D9Sports.com co-Editor Chris Rossetti said. “(D9Sports.com Co-Editor) Rich Rhoades and myself have long talked about the best way we could honor Kelly, and after a lot of thought and discussion we thought this would be a great way. We then reached out to Karns City assistant coach Dave Kerschbaumer, who played football at East Brady with Kelly and who has a relationship with the Kelly family, to see if we could secure Jim’s approval, which he did. We are grateful to Jim, the entire Kelly family and to Dave for their support.”
Kelly is a 1978 graduate of East Brady High School (now part of the Karns City School District) where he threw for 3,915 career yards and 44 touchdowns and also scored over 1,000 career points in basketball while averaging 23 points and 20 rebounds as a senior. He went to college at Miami (Fla.) and then played in both the USFL for the Houston Gamblers and in the NFL for the Buffalo Bill. He led the Bills to four straight AFC Championships and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
“When you talk to the people who either coached against or played with or against Kelly when he was at East Brady, they, to a man, say he is the greatest player they have seen in District 9,” Rossetti said. “But more importantly, they talk about what a great person he is. That, to us, is just as important as anything he has done in football.”
Located at www.d9sports.com, D9Sports.com is in its 15th year of covering athletics within the PIAA’s District 9. The site, which is not affiliated with the PIAA in any way, covers all 25 football playing teams playing in District 9. For more information on the site, please visit it or e-mail the staff at sports@d9sports.com. The site is also active on Twitter @D9sports and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/d9sports.
