John Joseph Kelley  was the winner of the 1957 Boston Marathon and the marathon at the 1959 Pan American Games and a member of two United States Olympic Marathon teams. He was often dubbed John “The Younger” to avoid confusion with Johnny “The Elder” Kelley, the winner of the 1935 and 1945 Boston Marathons. The two men were not related.

(December 24, 1930 – August 21, 2011)

Kelley was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He began racing in marathons during his college years. From 1950-54, he attended Boston University,
located about a mile from the Boston Marathon finish line. While there,
he excelled in team races and would run his first two Boston Marathons,
in 1953 and 1954. He finished fifth in the 1953 race before following
up with a 7th place finish the next year. After graduating, he finished
2nd in the 1956 Boston Marathon and made his way onto the U.S. Olympic
Marathon team which competed in Melbourne, Australia
during the same year. He would go on to win the Boston Marathon
outright in 1957 while setting a new course record on the remeasured
course.
After his win at Boston, Kelley would win several other marathons, including eight consecutive wins of the Yonkers Marathon in Yonkers, New York.^[2]
As a result of his record setting performance at Yonkers in 1960, he
again found his way onto the U.S. Olympic Marathon team and competed in
the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He placed 21st and 19th in the Melbourne and Rome Olympic marathons, respectively.

John J. Kelley’s Boston Marathons

1953 2:28:19 5th 1954 2:28:51 7th 1956 2:14:33 2nd 1957 2:20:05 1st 1958 2:30:51 2nd 1959 2:23:43 2nd 1960 DNF 1961 2:23:54 2nd 1962 2:28:37 4th 1963 2:21:09 2nd 1964 2:27:23 7th 1965 2:25:23 14th 1967 2:25:25 12th 1968 2:37:03 15th 1969 2:31:36 22nd 1970 2:36:50 63rd

1971 2:44:10 96th 1972 2:40:05 79th 1973 2:41:13 66th 1974 2:32:18 78th 1975 2:34:11 169th 1976 2:46:43 154th 1977 2:46:26 353rd 1980 2:55:45 1982 2:55:50 1983 2:55:30 1984 2:58:35 1986 3:01:40 1987 3:08:46 1988 3:28:53 1989 3:46:50 1992 4:07:32

Trivia

Kelley is the only runner to ever win both the Boston Marathon and the Mount Washington Road Race,
which he won in 1961. He made the ascent in one hour and 8 minutes 54
seconds, nearly seven minutes faster than the winning times in the three
previous years the race had been held, 1936-1938.

Later years

After his career as a runner ended, he went on to a successful career as high school running coach. At Fitch High School in Groton, Connecticut, Kelley coached Amby Burfoot,
winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon. In addition to coaching, he found
work over the years as a newspaper columnist, free lance writer, cab
driver and running wear store co-owner.

Personal life

Kelley married Jacinta C. Braga in 1953, and together they had three children, Julia, Kathleen, and Eileen.

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