Graham Kelly

Graham Kelly’s interest in football started at a young age. Born in Saskatchewan, Graham worked as a water boy for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as a teenager, from 1956-1957. From 1963 to 1968, he covered the Roughriders for United Press International.

In 1966, Graham earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Regina. His interest in history helped feed his passion for writing about the CFL, an endeavour that would grow after moving to Medicine Hat in 1968. In 1972, Graham began writing a weekly column on the CFL for the Medicine Hat News and is currently in his 44th year, making him the longest running columnist in the paper’s history. Graham is a fixture among the press corps at Calgary Stampeders home games, missing only eight games in all those years. He attended and covered 41 Grey Cup games for the newspaper and has also found the time to write seven books: four on the subject of the Grey Cup, along with books about the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Edmonton Eskimos, and the Calgary Stampeders.

His publications have been critically acclaimed and are considered important contributions to the history of the Canadian Football League.

A school teacher and administrator by trade, Graham was instrumental in establishing the high school football program in Medicine Hat and was one of the first coaches when the league began in the late 1960s. Graham was also a City Councillor for thirty years and played a key role in the development of football and sports facilities in the community – notably the Methanex Bowl, Medicine Hat’s foremost football facility on the property of the Family Leisure Centre.

Graham was chosen many times to vote on the CFL’s Outstanding Player Awards. He was one of 100 writers chosen by TSN to select the Top-100 Players of All Time in Canadian Football. This list was released in 2006.

Graham’s published works include: Grey Cup: A History (1999); Green Grit: The Story of the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2001); Grey Cup Glory, The Edmonton Eskimos’ Championship Season (2003); Greatest Grey Cups (2005); Go Stamps Go, The Story of the Calgary Stampeders (2010); Saskatchewan Roughriders, The Players, The History & The Fans (2012), and Grey Cup 100 (2012).

Graham Kelly was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame - Reporters Division in 2002. He received the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 2016, Graham received the Bell Memorial Award from the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, which is awarded to members of the media who have made a significant contribution to athletics in the province.