Today is the birthday of Windom Hall-of-Fame Coach Jack Kelly! I have known Jack since I was a little boy riding on the team bus, my Dad Wally was always the driver, and I got to go to all the road games! Using my Minnesota math I figure I have known Jack for at least 55 years!!! I also got to know Jack as a youngster playing Peewee Baseball! He also was my Shop teacher in Jr. High! Jack coached the High School Basketball and Baseball team.
One time he pulled my ear and that was it! I never misbehaved again!!! LOL!
I really got to know Jack when I was the night custodian at the Middle School which is now the BARC! Jack would work late into the night
My Dad and him became great friends from their work at the school and also being on the Fire Department together. Jack also served on the Rescue Squad, as it was called in those days.
I will never forget the day back in the 60’s when Jack and other members including my Dad were trying to dig in the gravel to reach a boy who had been buried in the gravel pit.
What have I learn from Jack? He is 83 and still serving the Windom community with passion! He’s never really retired!
Jack came to serve, not to be served. He has touched thousands of lives in his 80 plus years and he still is making a huge difference! Strong message of pure goodness! Thank you Jack!
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
The picture at the very top is of Jack and lovely wife Marilyn who has passed on to Glory. I will always be thankful that I got to talk by phone with Marilyn months before she passed on. She told me how much she loved my Dad! Jack and Marilyn will be forever remembered as a power team of goodness! Inside the post is a picture of Jack receiving a portrait of himself that Rod Byam did of Jack as we honored the Coach at the 2016 Windom Revival at the BARC. Also in the picture is Greg Warner of the BARC.
Happy Birthday Coach and thank you for blessing thousands with your life! I am thankful I got to talk to you today!