areyougonnacomeoutwiththebest:
John B. Kelly
This 1965 sculpture of John B. Kelly by Harry Rosin is at the grandstands for rowing events on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. John Brendan Kelly, Sr. (Jack Kelly) was one of the most accomplished oarsmen in the history of rowing, and is also known as the father of actress Grace Kelly, who later became Princess of Monaco. Kelly (1889-1960) won 126 straight races in the single scull at a time when rowing was at the height of its popularity, and his victories were well covered by the news media. Kelly had begun an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in 1908 while learning to row on the Schuylkill, and this fact led to a dramatic turn of events. In 1920 he was in the midst of his 126-race winning streak and the winner of six U.S. National Championships. He decided to skip the Olympics and compete in the Henley Regatta in England, rowing’s most prestigious event. However, the Henley Regatta rejected his application because he had done manual labor as a bricklayer, which they said violated the rules of entry. This whole affair was widely reported in the press, and a surprised and angry Kelly set his sights on the Olympics. In a dramatic stretch run in the Olympics, Kelly found his redemption by edging out Jack Beresford, the man who had won the Diamond Sculls at the Henley Regatta that had excluded him. To top that, just one-half hour after that exhausting event, Kelly teamed up with his cousin, Paul Costello, to win the double scull race, a feat which has never been repeated at the Olympic games.
#rowspiration
