John B. Kelly Sr.
John B. Kelly Sr.
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| Full name | John Brendan Kelly Sr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Jack | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
October 4, 1889 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
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| Died | June 20, 1960 (aged 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Resting place | Holy Sepulchre Cemetery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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John Brendan Kelly Sr. (October 4, 1889 – June 20, 1960), also known as Jack Kelly, was one of the most accomplished American rowers in the history of the sport of rowing. He was a triple Olympic Gold Medal winner, the first to be so in the sport of rowing. He won 126 straight races in the single scull (1x). The Philadelphia-based Kelly also was a multimillionaire in the bricklaying and construction industry. He was the father of Grace Kelly, actress and Princess of Monaco (thus maternal grandfather of Albert II, Prince of Monaco), and of John B. Kelly Jr., an accomplished rower in his own right.
Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one of ten children of John Henry Kelly (1847-1897), an Irish immigrant from Newport, County Mayo, Ireland who came to the United States in 1869, and his wife Mary Ann Costello (1852-1926), also a native of Ireland, who arrived in the U.S. in 1867.
In 1908, he began bricklaying in Philadelphia and he also learned to row on the Schuylkill River. By 1916, Kelly was a national champion and the best sculler in the United States when, as part of the World War I call up, Kelly joined United States Army as a private. He rose to the rank of lieutenant when he was discharged in 1918. While in the army, he entered the armed forces boxing tournament as a heavyweight and ran up a 12-0 record before being waylaid by a broken ankle. Future World Professional Boxing Champion Gene Tunney won the tournament. In later years, Kelly would kid Tunney: "Aren't you lucky I broke my ankle?"
Following his army discharge in 1918, Kelly continued his dominance in the single scull and started a brickwork contracting company in Philadelphia and was on his way to becoming a millionaire. A self-promoter, Kelly coined the slogan, "Kelly for Brickwork," which was often seen at local construction sites.
Kelly developed a technique to ensure payment for his brickwork from less-than-trustworthy real estate developers. Kelly's crews would mortar a single pane of glass into each chimney they built. When new home owners would complain to realtors about smoke backing into their houses from the fireplaces, and the developers would then complain to Kelly, he would reply "I'll take care of it when your check clears." Once paid, Kelly would send crews out to drop a brick down each chimney they'd constructed, smashing the glass panes and solving the problem.
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