Marvin Lee Kellum (June 23, 1952 – February 4, 2023) was an American professional football player who played

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

for four seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a member of the Steelers first 2 World Championships, Super Bowls IX & X, and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. Kellum recovered a fumble on the opening kick-off of the second half of

Super Bowl IX Super Bowl IX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings to decide the National Football League (NFL) cha ...

, which led to the game's first touchdown. He was used mainly on special teams with the Steelers. During Kellum's freshman year at

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

, a

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

near the Continental Divide in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

killed 14 Shocker players, head coach Ben Wilson and 14 others. Kellum and his freshman squad teammates were promoted to the varsity alongside players who were not involved in the crash, and WSU resumed its season three weeks after the catastrophe, thanks to an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

waiver allowing the Shockers to use freshmen on their varsity team (the NCAA prohibited freshmen from playing varsity football and basketball at the time; those restrictions were repealed in January 1972).

References

1952 births 2023 deaths Players of American football from Topeka, Kansas American football linebackers Pittsburgh Steelers players St. Louis Cardinals (football) players Wichita State Shockers football players {{linebacker-1950s-stub