Publisher's journal: Grid coach, lawyer will be remembered as fierce competitor

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:

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