Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly once wanted to be an Irish pol in Massachusetts

His politician father taught him all he knew about dealing with people

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

2 Comments

Notre Dame Fighting Irish boss Brian Kelly

Photo by Google images

Tweet

“We have a family name that has an Irish story to it as well. My youngest son is Kenzel Kelly, and we got that from my great-grandparents. When they came over from Ireland and they were traveling through downtown New York as the Passion Play [depicting the passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death] was being put on. It was directed by a Father Kenzel and they liked that name. So my grandfather was [christened] Kenzel and my dad is Paul Kenzel and the last chance at keeping a Kenzel in the family was when my youngest boy was born; my dad bribed my wife, who wasn’t a big Kenzel fan, and said, listen, if you go with Kenzel and keep the name alive, you get the house on the Cape. So the name Kenzel is still alive.

As for what his Irish American upbringing taught him, Kelly says,
“I would probably say relationship building, how important it is, trust, and also knowing how to work with the media. I was working with the media on a day-to-day basis. So I think it helped me at an early age to work with the media and reach out as best we could to build good relationships.”

Now he has led the team from unranked to the BCS National Championship game. It ties in with what he said in the interview with Irish America, pointing to a painting of faceless workingmen on his wall, which is his favorite.

“You can see they’re Irish…I look at that [and I see] the Irish immigrants who came over and lost their lives and dug the canals. When I first saw it I said, “I’ve got to have that picture.” It also is about where we want to bring our football team – back to its Fighting Irish roots. Back to faceless and nameless. It’s not about superstars but about a team, about trust and commitment and all the things I was taught growing up from my family, from my Irish Catholic roots, and we’re trying to bring Notre Dame back to that, and that’s kind of the full circle here.

“That’s the job and the process. When you’ve been in it and it’s ingrained in you and you know where you want to go with it, you don’t get derailed too easily.”

His success has not surprised many of his closest associates.”I'm not surprised at all by what he’s done,” said Curt Anes, who played quarterback for Kelly when Grand Valley State won the Division II national championship in 2002, told the Associated Press.

“It’s the nature of who he is. He’s such a leader. He’s tenacious in what he does. He’s just really doggone good at it.”

Print

E-mail

Tweet