Farmer Kelly

Farmer Kelly was a college football player, from Orlinda, Tennessee. He was later a county agent for the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Kentucky.

University of Tennessee

Kelly was a prominent tackle for the Tennessee Volunteers of the University of Tennessee from 1911 [Tennessee Volunteers football team|1911] to Tennessee Volunteers football team|1914]. He was the All-Southern Team|All-Southern] captain of the Southern [Intercollegiate Athletic Association] champion 1914 team.

1914

In 1914, Tennessee won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the first championship of any kind for the Tennessee program. Winning all nine of their games, the 1914 squad was only the second undefeated team in Tennessee history. The 1914 Vols were retroactively awarded a NCAA [Division I FBS national football championship|national championship] by 1st-N-Goal, though this remains largely unrecognized. One account of the 1914 [Sewanee Tigers football team|Sewanee] game that year reads "Mush Kerr played a wonderful game in the line as did Capt. Kelly. The work of the Tennessee line was easily the feature of the contest, and Sewanee early discovered that it was practically useless to rely on line plunges to gain ground."