Alva Kelley | |
Birth Date: | 16 June 1918 |
Player Years1: | 1938–1940 |
Player Team1: | Cornell |
Player Positions: | End |
Coach Years1: | 1946–1949 |
Coach Team1: | Cornell (assistant) |
Coach Years2: | 1950 |
Coach Team2: | Yale (line) |
Coach Years3: | 1951–1958 |
Coach Team3: | Brown |
Coach Years4: | 1959–1961 |
Coach Team4: | Colgate |
Coach Years5: | 1963–1970 |
Coach Team5: | Hobart |
Overall Record: | 60–98–5 |
Awards: |
Alva E. Kelley (June 16, 1918 – August 21, 1999) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Brown University (1951–1958), Colgate University (1959–1961), and Hobart College (1963–1970), compiling a career college football record of 60–98–5.
Kelley graduated from Cornell University in 1941 after playing three seasons of football under Carl Snavely and fellow fraternity brother George K. James, including the 1939 undefeated national championship season. He was a member of Sphinx Head, the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and through the latter organization, the Irving Literary Society. He was assistant coach at Cornell from 1946 to 1949, before becoming head coach at Brown University and then Colgate. He was inducted into the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980.
Kelley was the 27th head football coach at Colgate University, serving for three seasons, from 1959 to 1961, and compiling a record of 9–18.
One of his great-grandchildren, Will Levis, currently plays football for the Tennessee Titans of the NFL[1] after spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons at the University of Kentucky as their starting quarterback. He also spent three seasons at Pennsylvania State University from 2018 to 2020.[2]