Hugh Thomas Kelly (23 July 1923 – 28 March 2009) was a Scottish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. He played as a

left half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and spent his entire 14-year professional career with

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Club career

Born in Valleyfield,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Kelly began his career with

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

-based

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

club Jeanfield Swifts. He joined English club Blackpool in 1943 as a 20-year-old, but due to the ongoing

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he didn't make his

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

debut for ''the Seasiders'' until September 1946. During the war, he guested for several clubs, including East Fife. It took some time for Kelly to establish himself in Blackpool's half-back line, but by 1948–49, the trio of

Harry Johnston Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston (12 June 1858 – 31 July 1927), known as Harry Johnston, was a British explorer, botanist, artist, colonial administrator, and linguist who travelled widely in Africa and spoke many African languages. He publishe ...

Eric Hayward Lionel Eric Hayward (2 August 1917 – 1976) was an English professional footballer who played as a defender. He was the elder brother of Basil and Doug Hayward. He began his career as an amateur at Port Vale in July 1934, before turning prof ...

and Kelly was becoming legendary. He played in both the

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

and

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

s. However, in the final home league game of the 1952–53 season against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

he suffered a broken ankle following a tackle by centre-forward

Louis Bimpson James Louis Bimpson (14 May 1929 – 13 November 2021) was an English footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool during the 1950s. He notched up a good goalscoring record without ever being a first-team regular. Life and playing career ...

and he missed the famous

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

match-up with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

, although the club asked the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

to produce a special winners' medal for his nomination as " twelfth man". Kelly later said, "I lived a great journey to

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. That's what fascinated me. And it was a privilege to know such a good crowd of players. They were lovely. Even though we'd lost the other two, it was great to have played on the sacred turf at Wembley and I have fond memories." The 1950s was the most successful decade in Blackpool's history to date, and Kelly was at the club playing top division football throughout, as were goalkeeper

George Farm George Neil Farm (13 July 1924 – 18 July 2004) was a Scottish professional football goalkeeper and manager. Born in Slateford, a suburb of Edinburgh, Farm represented his country on ten occasions, the last three of which occurred after a ga ...

, defender Tommy Garrett, right winger

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...

, forward

Jackie Mudie John Knight Mudie (10 April 1930 – 2 March 1992) was a Scottish international footballer who played as a forward. He won seventeen caps for his country, helping the Scotland national team to qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Startin ...

and outside left Bill Perry. In 1955–56 he took over as Blackpool skipper from Johnston and helped the club to their highest-ever league finish, runners-up to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. He remained club captain until his retirement from the professional game in 1960. At the end of 1959–60 he was given a free transfer, and

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 it ...

side

Ashton United Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of and play at Hurst Cross. History The club was founded in 1878 as Hurst Football Club and the earliest known match ...

came in for his services as their player-manager.

International career

Kelly won one cap for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, in a 6–0 victory over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on 30 April 1952. He also appeared twice for Scotland B.

Personal life

Kelly was married in 1949 and had three daughters. After retiring, he remained in

and was later on the backroom staff at

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a single-tier football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two being Raikes Hall Gardens and the ...

. He also started a business in the North Shore area of the town as a grocer and ice-cream manufacturer. After a short illness in 2008, Kelly underwent an emergency operation in Victoria Hospital on 14 February 2009. He then contracted

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and died in Clifton Hospital in

Lytham St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...

on 28 March. His funeral was held at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Blackpool, and he was cremated at

Carleton Crematorium Carleton Crematorium, together with the adjacent necropolis, Carleton Cemetery, is a graveyard located within the Greenlands ward of Blackpool with its main entrance on Stocks Road in Carleton, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, in England. It was op ...

Career statistics

Club statistics

International statistics

References

;Specific ;General *

External links

* * *
Hugh Kelly's obituary in ''The Scotsman''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Hugh 1923 births 2009 deaths Scottish footballers Scotland men's international footballers Blackpool F.C. players Scottish football managers Scotland men's B international footballers Deaths from pneumonia in England Footballers from Fife Jeanfield Swifts F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football wing halves Sportspeople from Valleyfield, Fife FA Cup final players