Hockey legend Patrick J. Kelly was successful as a player, player/coach, bench coach, general manager, and commissioner. There has never been an individual in minor league hockey history that could boast such a resume as Pat Kelly.

As a player, he was a member of 4 championship teams in the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) – one as a full-time player with the Greensboro Generals (1962-63) and three as a player/coach with the Clinton Comets (1967-68 to 1969-70). The defenseman started his professional hockey career in the Quebec Hockey League (QHL) in 1957-58 with Trois Rivieres and then split the following year between Trois Rivieres (QHL) and Troy of the International Hockey League (IHL).  Kelly began the first of his 14 seasons in the EHL with Greensboro and New Haven in 1959-60. He gained his first head coaching job in 1964-65 with Jersey (EHL) as a player/coach. In 1967-68, he guided the Clinton Comets (EHL) to the greatest regular season in the history of minor professional hockey with a 57-5-10 record (.861 pct.). He ranks 4th all-time in assists (619), 7th all-time in games played (835), and 9th all-time in PIM (1,150) on the EHL’s all-time lists and was selected to the EHL all-star team a record 9 times. His minor league regular season player totals are: 757 points, 664 assists, 93 goals, and 1,359 PIM in 946 games.

Kelly coached 9 teams in eight different professional hockey leagues, including the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA). He guided his teams to 6 playoff championships, 7 regular season titles, and 8 division titles. The 6 playoff titles were in 3 different leagues – 3 in the EHL with Clinton, 2 in the Southern Hockey League (SHL) with Charlotte and one in the IHL with Peoria. He also coached in the American Hockey League (AHL), the revived Eastern Hockey League (EHL), and the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL). In the NHL, he piloted the Colorado Rockies to their only Stanley Cup playoff appearance in team history during his first of two seasons with the club (1977-79), compiling an NHL regular season record of 22-54-25 (.342 pct.). In 1976-77, he led the Birmingham Bulls (WHA) to a 24-30-3 (.447 pct.) regular season record. Kelly’s overall regular season coaching record was 835-712-160 (.536 pct.).

Kelly has received several honors throughout his coaching career: He was voted to the EHL all-star team as a coach 3 times; in 1969-70, he was named The Hockey News Minor Hockey Coach of the Year; he shared SHL Coach of the Year honors in 1974-75; and he shared the IHL’s Commissioner’s Trophy as Coach of the Year in 1984-85. Kelly has been inducted into four Halls of Fame. He was enshrined into the Peoria Sports Hall of Fame in February of 1990. The Roanoke Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame in his hometown of Welland, Ontario elected him in 1998. In March of 2002, Kelly became the first inductee into the Greensboro Hockey Hall of Fame when the Generals (ECHL) retired his uniform #5.

As Commissioner of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), Kelly helped expand the game into new markets and developed it into the biggest minor professional hockey league in North America. The hockey legend brought professional hockey to seven new cities. When he stepped down as Commissioner at the end of the 1995-96 season the ECHL Board of Governors instituted a new ECHL playoff championship trophy – the Kelly Cup – in honor of his accomplishments with the league. The board also gave Kelly the lifetime title of Commissioner Emeritus.