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Kelly joins SCG's elite
14 August 2003 Herald Sun
IT'S not every day a Sydney sporting great has his name alongside Bradman, Noble, O'Reilly, Churchill and Walters on a piece of prime real estate at the SCG.
So it was understandable that Paul Kelly was humbled yesterday to have the Swans players' tunnel at the SCG named the "Paul Kelly Race".
SCG Trust chairman Rodney Cavalier said it was a fitting way to "honour a lad from Wagga Wagga who came good in the big city".
Yesterday's ceremony to unveil a commemorative brass plaque and the Paul Kelly Race not only acknowledged Kelly's 12-year career with the Swans but his permanent place in Sydney's sporting lore.
"Coming from the bush, I'd never been to the SCG prior to getting invited up to the Swans," Kelly said. "I was pretty rapt just to have a training session here initially.
"We always, and I probably still do, view it as a sacred ground and it's a special ground for me and plenty of others still I suppose.
"It's a bit hard to believe in the years down the track my kids and their kids are going to come to the footy or the cricket or whatever and they're going to see my name up on the race, so it is a great honour."
"I am really very, very humbled by it."
Cavalier said the naming of stands and facilities at the SCG was reserved for those who had "served their sport, distinguished themselves, distinguished the ground and made competitive sport a better place".
"Unlike the Bradman Gates, through which Bradman never walked, Paul Kelly has many times raced up, limped up, walked up, staggered down, or exalted his way back down before and after many games."
14 August 2003 Herald Sun
IT'S not every day a Sydney sporting great has his name alongside Bradman, Noble, O'Reilly, Churchill and Walters on a piece of prime real estate at the SCG.
So it was understandable that Paul Kelly was humbled yesterday to have the Swans players' tunnel at the SCG named the "Paul Kelly Race".
SCG Trust chairman Rodney Cavalier said it was a fitting way to "honour a lad from Wagga Wagga who came good in the big city".
Yesterday's ceremony to unveil a commemorative brass plaque and the Paul Kelly Race not only acknowledged Kelly's 12-year career with the Swans but his permanent place in Sydney's sporting lore.
"Coming from the bush, I'd never been to the SCG prior to getting invited up to the Swans," Kelly said. "I was pretty rapt just to have a training session here initially.
"We always, and I probably still do, view it as a sacred ground and it's a special ground for me and plenty of others still I suppose.
"It's a bit hard to believe in the years down the track my kids and their kids are going to come to the footy or the cricket or whatever and they're going to see my name up on the race, so it is a great honour."
"I am really very, very humbled by it."
Cavalier said the naming of stands and facilities at the SCG was reserved for those who had "served their sport, distinguished themselves, distinguished the ground and made competitive sport a better place".
"Unlike the Bradman Gates, through which Bradman never walked, Paul Kelly has many times raced up, limped up, walked up, staggered down, or exalted his way back down before and after many games."
It's still pretty cool... but I want there to be a Paul Kelly Stand, damn it!
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