SWAC.org PROFILES BASKETBALL LEGEND 'MACHINE GUN' KELLY
SWAC.org
March 31, 2010
By Roscoe Nance
Special to SWAC.org
As far as nicknames are concerned, Harry "Machine Gun'' Kelly is one of the best in the annals of SWAC basketball.
Kelly is a SWAC Hall of Famer who was the conference Player of the Year four times at Texas Southern from 1979-83. He earned the moniker by scoring 3,066 career points, fifth best in NCAA history and averaging 27.9 points.
However, Kelly's nickname, given to him during his freshman year by a dorm counselor, doesn't do him justice. Sure, he was a great scorer. But he was more than a scorer, as his 9.9 per game career rebounding average attests. In fact Kelly, 6-7, finished his career with 1,085 rebounds. That made him the first player in NCAA history with more than 3,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
"The experts who never saw Harry play viewed him as shooter,'' former Texas Southern coach Bob Moreland, also a SWAC Hall of Famer, says. "Harry was basketball player. You don't get a thousand rebound by being just a shooter.''
Kelly, who grew up in Jackson, Miss., and has worked with the City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering for 26 years, says he developed his knack for rebounding at an early age playing against older guys in his neighborhood.
"I knew when I shot, if I missed I had to get the rebound and put it back up before they beat me up,'' Kelly says. "I had a jumper, but I took pride in rebounding.''
Kelly didn't let his pride in rebounding get in the way of scoring though. His 60-point outburst against Jarvis Christian - a single-game record for Texas Southern - makes that crystal clear. But even though Moreland gave free rein, Kelly insists he wasn't a gunner without a conscious.
"I had some nights where the jumper was falling and I was lighting it up,'' he says. "When it wasn't I tried to shoot free throws and get rebounds. When it was falling, it was on. I had freedom to shoot. Coach Moreland gave me freedom as long as I took good shots. He knew I pretty much would take good shots''
That flies in the face of stories about Kelly showing up at games carry a toy Tommy gun, his way of letting opponents know what he had in store for them.
"Coach Moreland would have tripped out if I had done that,'' says Kelly, who still holds 10 Texas Southern records.
Kelly led Texas Southern to back-to-back 20-win as a junior and senior while leading the nation in scoring each season. He received the John McLendon Award, which goes to the top Black College basketball player in the nation, each of those seasons.
"When you coach a player who can get 27-28 points a game and 14-15 rebounds, that goes a long way toward winning games,'' Moreland says. "He was a super player. He was a joy to coach. He was extremely coachable. I had no problems with him. You knew he was going to play his role to win.''
Kelly had numerous memorable moments at Texas Southern. Moreland says his favorite Harry Kelly moment came when the Tigers were player Alcorn State at Texas Southern's gym. Alcorn was leading by a point with time running.
"He dribbled across halfcourt and drilled it,'' Moreland says. "That's embedded my mind.''
Moreland says Bill Stickney, the beat writer for the Houston Post, came back the next day and measured the shot at 43 feet.
"I don't know what his range was, but it was beyond what they're shooting today (for three-pointers),'' Moreland says. "If they had the three-point shot when he played, he would have scored more than 4,000 points.''
Kelly figures he could have averaged another 8-10 points a game had the three-point field goal been around when he played.
"I didn't really shoot that for out,'' he says. "A lot of times it depended on the type of defense the other team was playing. If they were playing zone, you had to try to break the zone. That's when you get longer shots.''
Alabama State women's assistant coach Clayton Harris witnessed Kelly's shooting prowess first hand as an assistant with the Hornets' men's program when Kelly was at Texas Southern. Harris is still in awe of Kelly's skill as a shooter.
"You talk about could shoot,'' Harris says. "He could shoot the basketball. You talk about catch and shoot. He could do it with the best of them. He was a good player. He could flat out play.''
Kelly's shooting ability didn't translate into an NBA career, though. The Atlanta Hawks picked Kelly in the fourth round of the 1983 draft. They chose guards Doc Rivers and Randy Wittman and center John Pinone ahead of him, and all three made the team.
Kelly played in the California Summer League on a team of free agents after the Hawks cut him during rookie camp. He averaged 30 points a game, but he didn't get any contract offers. He did get an offer to play in the Phillipines but turned it down.
That fall, he accepted an offer to play in the Italian League. He scored 37 points in the only game that he played during his two-week stay, which management decided not to make him one of the two Americans that the team could sign.
During his career at Texas Southern, Kelly had held his own in pickup games at Houston's Fonde Recreation Center against Clyde Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Micheaux and other players on the University of Houston's Phi Slama Jama teams that went to three Final Fours; future NBA players Terry Teagle, who played at Rice, and Ricky Pierce, who played at Baylor also played at Fonde, and Kelly didn't take a backseat to them as well. He also played against Jackson State star Purvis Short, a starter for the Golden State Warriors, during summers in Jackson.
"As I remember, he was a hell of a shooter,'' Short says. "He was a scorer, a really good shooter. All indications were he would have a successful career. For whatever reason it didn't pan out''
Kelly used those pickup games to gauge his potential as an NBA player. When the NBA didn't bear fruit, became disillusioned with basketball.
"The NBA was all politics,'' he says. "It wasn't really a situation where I competed for a position. I only ran drills. I really had no chance. Those (Rivers, Wittman and Pinone) were the only ones they were going to keep, and that was it. It was very disappointing. I would have felt better if I had a chance to compete and didn't make it. I believe I would have done real well if I had the right opportunity. With my rebounding and scoring ability, I think I would have done exceptionally well.''
Kelly's disappointment was so great that it was a couple of years before he could bear watching basketball games on TV. After he got married and started a family, he returned to the court playing rec league ball and giving his youngest son pointers when he played at Houston's Alief Elsik High. Kelly's daughter Teeanna is sitting out her freshman year at Texas Southern with a knee injury but hopes to play for the Lady Tigers next season.
Kelly, whose oldest son played high school football, says he didn't push any of his kids toward basketball in an effort to fulfill his NBA dreams.
"I didn't try to force basketball on them,'' he says. "I said, `If that what you want to do, you can do it.' I know me not making it wasn't because of my ability. It was something beyond my control. I have peace of mind.''
Roscoe Nance is a sports journalist with 34 years experience who most recently wrote for USA TODAY.