Tom Kelly (basketball)
{{Short description|American basketball player}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Tom Kelly
| image = Tom Kelly 2004.jpg
| caption = Kelly in 2004
| height_ft = 6
| height_in = 0
| weight_lb = 170
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|3|5}}
| birth_place = New York City, New York
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|3|20|1924|3|5}}
| death_place = Santa Barbara, California
| nationality = American
| high_school = Regis
(New York City, New York)
| college = NYU (1946–1948)
| draft_year = 1948
| draft_round = —
| draft_pick = —
| draft_team = Boston Celtics
| draft_league = BAA
| career_start = 1948
| career_end = 1949
| career_number = 6
| career_position = Guard
| years1 = 1948–1949
| team1 = Boston Celtics
| highlights =
| bbr = kellyto01
}}
Thomas Edward Kelly (March 5, 1924 – March 20, 2008) was an American professional basketball player. After playing one season with the Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), Kelly retired and became an engineer.
Early life
Thomas Edward Kelly was born at the New York Medical College, New York City, on March 5, 1924, to Edward Thomas Kelly, a New York City Alderman,{{cite news|title=Edward T. Kelly, 41, A Former Alderman|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/03/26/98115705.pdf|access-date=April 7, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=March 26, 1938}} and Anastasia Cecilia Kane.{{cite news|title=Thomas E. Kelly|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=Thomas-E-Kelly&pid=107274421|access-date=April 7, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=April 9, 2008}} In 1929, the family moved to St. Francis Xavier Parish in the Bronx.
Kelly earned an academic scholarship to Regis High School, where he played basketball and graduated in 1941.
In 1942, at age 18, Kelly joined the United States Army Air Forces as an Aviation Cadet. He was trained in the United States Army Air Corps as a B-17 flying officer and commissioned a Second Lieutenant Pilot in 1944, assigned to the 486th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 833rd Bomber Squadron of the 3rd Division of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, stationed in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. Kelly flew twenty-nine combat missions over Germany, winning five battle stars and the air medal with oak leaf clusters.
After leaving the military, Kelly attended New York University's Bronx campus on the G.I. Bill, graduating after three years in 1948 with an engineering degree. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
While at NYU, he won a spot on the basketball team as a walk-on, joining such nationally recognized athletes as Dolph Schayes, Ray Lumpp, Sid Tannenbaum, and Frank Mangiapane.{{cite news|title=Undefeated N.Y.U. Basketball Team Turns Back Boston University|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/02/06/86740729.pdf |access-date=April 7, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 6, 1948}} At NYU, Kelly was All-Metropolitan basketball forward on the team that reached the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) final game in 1948.{{cite web|title=Thomas Kelly Class of 1948|url=http://www.gonyuathletics.com/hof.aspx?hof=62&|work=Hall of Fame|publisher=New York University|access-date=April 7, 2013}} In 1991, Kelly was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame at NYU.
Professional basketball career
Kelly postponed his engineering career when he was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the Basketball Association of America (BAA){{cite web|title=Draft|url=http://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/BostonCeltics/History/draft.html|work=Celtics History|publisher=NBA Hoops Online|access-date=April 7, 2013}} and farmed out to the Hartford Hurricanes in their American Basketball League. After leading the league in scoring, he was recalled to the Celtics{{cite news|title=Celtivs Ask Waivers on Kelly|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/02/11/85634915.pdf |access-date=April 7, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 11, 1949}} and was high scorer in their victory over the Fort Wayne Pistons and labeled by the Boston sports media as a contender for "Rookie of the Year". He played 27 games in his one-season, 1948–1949, with the Celtics.{{cite book |last=Bjarkman|first=Peter C.|title=The Boston Celtics Encyclopedia |year=2002|publisher=Sports Publishing |page=213 |isbn=9781582615646|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbtwpjrpEUsC&pg=PA213}}
Engineering career
After Kelly retired from basketball, he had a four-decades career building a successful business in commercial heating, ventilating and air conditioning sales in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County.{{cite web|title=Our History|url=http://www.tranenynj.com/tc_history.php|work=Trane Culture|publisher=Trane Company|access-date=April 7, 2013}}
Beginning in 1954, Kelly lived for several years in Syosset, Long Island, where he served as vice president and then President of the Board of Education for Central School District No. 2. As Board president, he was instrumental in the construction of Syosset High School, the first modern centrally air conditioned high school on Long Island.
In the late 1950s he assumed management of the New York office of the Trane Company{{cite news|title=Business Notes|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/12/03/101489314.pdf|access-date=April 7, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=December 3, 1961}} and lived in Shippan Point, Stamford, Connecticut. He retired to Santa Barbara, California, in 1993.
Private life
In 1947, Kelly married Irene McGuire, a Bronx native, at Our Lady's Chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. After her death, Kelly married his second wife, Joanie.
Over the course of his active life, Kelly was an avid golfer, sailor and tennis player. He was a member of the Birnam Wood Golf Club, the Stamford Yacht Club and the New York Athletic Club.
Kelly died in Santa Barbara, California, on March 20, 2008. He was survived by his second wife and six sons and four daughters.
BAA career statistics
| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 90%; white-space: nowrap;" |
| colspan="6" style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid #aaa;"| Legend |
|---|
| style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid black;"| GP
| Games played |
| style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid black;"| FG%
| style="padding-right: 8px" | Field-goal percentage |
| style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid black;"| FT%
| Free-throw percentage |
| style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid black;"| APG
| Assists per game |
| style="background:#f2f2f2; border:1px solid black;"| PPG
| Points per game |
=Regular season=
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{basketballstats|bbr=k/kellyto01}}
{{Commons category|Tom Kelly (basketball)}}
- [http://www.486th.org/BS833/Harris.htm 486th Bomber Squadron photo]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Tom}}
Category:American men's basketball players
Category:Basketball players from New York City
Category:Boston Celtics draft picks
Category:Boston Celtics players
Category:NYU Violets men's basketball players
Category:Sportspeople from Syosset, New York
Category:Basketball players from Nassau County, New York
Category:Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni
Category:Regis High School (New York City) alumni
Category:United States Army Air Forces officers
Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II