Dennis Kelly '68

Dennis Kelly grew up in nearby Pittsfield, MA where he was an outstanding student and a three-sport athlete at St. Joseph's HS.

In the fall of his senior year Kelly began to think of colleges; Williams was not on his list. It was too close to home. Dartmouth and Brown seemed more appealing.

When asked to visit Williams by Frank Navarro's football staff in the winter of 1965, Kelly almost said no. "I was convinced I would be going away to college, but I figured I would at least take a look at Williams so I would have something to compare Dartmouth and Brown to," said Kelly.

Kelly's visit came during Winter Carnival Weekend. Mike Brewer '65 served as Kelly's host for the weekend. "I met some great guys that weekend," remembers Kelly. "Mike Brewer made me feel right at home and the guys I met were very, very impressive. I liked the classes I attended. I liked everything about the place

That weekend visit got Kelly interested in and excited about Williams but it was a meeting with Director of Admission Fred Copeland that sealed the deal.

"Without a doubt Fred Copeland is the warmest adult I ever met and he was a most impressive figure," said Kelly. "When I met him in his office we just hit it off and I was absolutely sold on Williams." Copeland admitted Kelly on the spot and despite Kelly's earlier notion that Williams was too close for comfort, the fit was right.

Arriving at Williams, Kelly decided to stop playing basketball and play only football and baseball so he could have an off-season to do other things.

Baseball was a different sort of experience at Williams than football. Everyone still wanted to win and played hard, but the crowds and media attention were far less than football. Kelly still learned valuable lessons in the spring. "Our coach, Bobby Coombs, was just a special person who loved to tell stories and impart his wisdom on the ways of the world," said Kelly. "It was a delight to be riding along with Coach Coombs and have him launch into his tale about the time he pitched to Babe Ruth and see the freshman just about faint. Bobby made the game fun and he taught us a lot about teamwork."

Kelly had no idea that his decision to attend Williams was about to become immortalized by the hands and paint brushes of America's finest illustrator, Norman Rockwell. Kelly was the player in Rockwell's painting "The Recruit." Look magazine had commissioned Rockwell to do a painting to appear in its September 20, 1966 issue in a story about college football and the evils of recruiting.

"I am convinced that Rockwell confused my Irish nose for a classic Italian nose," said Kelly. "It also helped that I lived nearby so I could spend the time necessary for Rockwell to paint the picture." Head Coach Frank Navarro and trainer Joe Altott are also in the painting that has Kelly in the pose that Michaelangelo used to sculpt Giuliano de' Medici in the Medici tombs.

Kelly was startled when he answered the phone at his home in Pittsfield on the first morning Rockwell was to set up the painting and heard Norman Rockwell on the other end. "He just asked me matter-of-factly if I wanted him to swing by and pick me up on his way to Williams," said Kelly. "Mr. Rockwell is by far the most humble famous person I have ever met."

Kelly started off his career at Williams as a linebacker and ended up in his senior year moving over to the offensive line and playing the center position. "I was reading the summer issue of the Alumni Review before my senior year and I saw that I had been moved to center for the upcoming season," said Kelly. "I was a little surprised that I had been moved, but it didn't really bother me. If moving me to center to take over for Ty Tyler, who was a three-year starter, would help the team, then I was all for it." Frank Navarro fondly recalls that Dennis Kelly was a "first class kid." "Dennis would always give you his best effort and he was not afraid to fail," said Navarro. He would just get right after the task until he could do it perfectly. He was the kind of person and player that everyone enjoyed being around because he was so positive. He was a pleasure to coach and coach with."

In Kelly's three years of varsity football the Ephs posted a record of 19-4-1, which included a memorable 1967 season that found the Ephs recording a 7-0-1 mark and ending a five-year losing streak to arch rival Amherst.

The 1967 game was played on a muddy, slow track at Weston Field on a raw, overcast day. A good Amherst team led the Ephs 10-7 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Ephs were driving. The Ephs put together a sustained drive that led them inside the Amherst 35-yard line. "We were started to feel it in the huddle," said Kelly. "We sensed that we were going to end the losing streak to Amherst."

Then disaster struck.

An Eph fumble gave Amherst the ball with just over six and a half minutes to go.

Something else happened on that fumble, something that had NEVER happened before in Dennis Kelly's life and it was a defining moment for him.

"I got over to our sideline after the fumble and I stood there looking out at the field and it just hit me -- it's over, we can't win," said Kelly. "That was the first time in my athletic career that I had ever given up. You have to understand that I played in a lot of games growing up playing three sports and while I certainly did not win them all, I had never given up before the game was over. I was really kind of shaken and somewhat disappointed in myself by that feeling."

While Kelly was dealing with being shaken by what he called "a little chink in my armor," the Ephs held the Lord Jeffs and forced them to punt.

The Ephs mounted another drive and pushed back into Amherst territory. Moments later, with just over four minutes to play, the huddle broke and Kelly came to the line of scrimmage knowing that a pass to Eph legend Jack Maitland, in the flat near the Williams bench, was in the offing. On the snap Kelly made his assigned block and was just getting up out of the mud when a roar from the Williams sideline to the left attracted his attention. There was Maitland, off and running down the sideline and no one was going to catch him! "The elation and pure joy that I felt at that moment can not be bought or sold. I suppose a large part of my joy was from having overcome my previous feeling that it was all over, but most of it was knowing that we were going to end our losing streak against Amherst."

Williams defeated Amherst 14-7 that day and the entire Williams campus was in an uproar. Players mobbed Maitland in the end zone and fans and the goal posts were toppled at the end of the game. It was a great way for Kelly to end his football career.

After graduating Kelly enrolled at Columbia University School of Law and for the next four years also served as a graduate assistant coach to Frank Navarro who was now the head coach at Columbia.

Currently Kelly is a partner in the law firm of Burns & Levinson in Boston, where he is in the Business Litigation Department. Previously Kelly had been with the firm of Looney & Grossman in Boston and had also served as a U.S. attorney for the United States Attorney's Office in Boston.

Kelly credits his well-rounded education at Williams for providing him the opportunity to meet, dazzle and marry Dr. Linda Aglio, assistant professor, Harvard Medical School and director of neuroanesthia at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"I got so much out of Williams it's a little daunting to think that I almost did not even give it a look," said Kelly. "If I had to do it over again I would absolutely go to Williams again and I would get even more out of it. Williams is an even better school now than when I went there, with co-education and a more diverse student population. The people at Williams truly make it a special place."