In his 57 years leading the grounds crew at Saint John's University, Br. Mark Kelly, OSB, experienced many memorable moments.
But by far the most dramatic was one he thankfully doesn't remember much at all.
It occurred on Aug. 18, 1964. Kelly, a Missouri native who'd joined the monastic community at SJU four years earlier, was working in a 10-foot trench that had been dug to reach a tunnel connecting two buildings at the Prep School that needed waterproofing.
As he was crouching to inspect it, a side of the trench caved in, trapping him underneath. Fortunately, a pocket of air allowed him to breathe during the almost two hours it took rescuers to reach him.
But he had been badly injured, chipping three vertebrae in his back, and needed three weeks in the hospital to recover.
"They told me my heart actually stopped on the way to the hospital in St. Cloud," he said. "They'd gotten oxygen down to me and given me a shot to put me out.
"All I remember is thinking I was going to die, then waking up in the hospital. It was a scary moment, but I survived it."
Indeed he did, allowing him to continue a lifetime of service to SJU that has included a close connection to Johnnie athletics – especially the football program as a result of the friendship he formed with legendary, longtime head coach
John Gagliardi.
"John was just a first-class guy," said Kelly, who'd been a pretty good high school quarterback himself at Maur Hill-Mount Academy – a Catholic boarding school in Atchison, Kansas.
"We just seemed to hit it off, and over the years we'd talk about anything and everything together."
The relationship grew so close that Kelly came to be considered almost a member of the Gagliardi family.
"Throughout my entire childhood, he was always over at our house watching sporting events and being part of family functions," recalls Gagliardi's son, Jim '89, himself a longtime assistant football coach at SJU and the school's current director of athletic marketing. "Our house was air conditioned, which back then wasn't as common as it is now. He'd come down and take a break from his work on the grounds crew.
"We actually had an above-ground swimming pool that he'd come down and use after work. Neither he nor my dad really knew how to swim. So it was funny to watch the two of them in there together.
"He's always been a really big part of our family."
His role as the head of the grounds crew meant Kelly played a key role in making sure the football and practice fields were always ready for play. In fact, in 2002, he was one of the biggest proponents of installing a state-of-the-art artificial turf field at Clemens Stadium – a move made possible thanks to a donation from prominent Central Minnesota philanthropist Bill Clemens.
"I told Bill Clemens I hope he gets canonized," Kelly recalls with a laugh. "Getting that turf took one heck of a load off the grounds crew. We spent so many hours over the years trying to keep that field ready to go in all kinds of weather."
Due to his friendship with Gagliardi, though, Kelly's role with the football team grew well beyond facility upkeep. He helped out with all kinds of things over the years, including taking care of transportation, securing bag lunches and meal money for players on road trips, selling ads in the program and much, much more.
To this day, he is at the game almost every Saturday, whether the team is home or away. At larger schools, such a role would be known as the director of football operations. But Kelly has done it all on a volunteer basis.
"He's been an invaluable part of our program," current head coach
Gary Fasching '81 said. "It's amazing when you think about everything he's done over the years. He's set up buses, he's made sure players are fed, he's helped out with equipment. It's really an endless list."
But his service to Johnnie athletics goes deeper than football. As head of the grounds crew, he took care of all the school's other athletic facilities as well. That included the hockey rink before the team began playing home games indoors in the early 1970s.
"When Gaston Rheaume '70 was the head coach (in the 1960s), we rigged up a 180-gallon tank we used out in the woods for sap and filled it with hot water," Kelly said. "Then we found some towels and we dragged it over the rink to make it smooth. We actually built our own Zamboni."
He was also in charge of a host of student workers over the years, many of whom were Johnnie student-athletes – forming relationships that continue to this day.
"I grew up in St. Cloud and working on the grounds crew here was my summer job," recalls former SJU football standout Mike Zumwinkle '86, who formed a friendship with Kelly so enduring that he has been a regular at sporting events for Zumwinkle's children, including those of his daughter Grace, who was a member of the 2022 women's U.S. Olympic hockey team.
"He was demanding, but fair.
John Gagliardi always talked about how we had people here doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Br. Mark is a great example of that. For over 60 years now, he's consistently been dedicated and devoted to Saint John's and members of the SJU community. He's never sought any recognition or credit. He's just done it. And he's become such a big part of so many people's lives."
Kelly retired as the head of the grounds crew in 2017. But he remains a regular at football games, and at home basketball, hockey and baseball games as well.
"He never slows down,"
Jim Gagliardi said. "It's just incredible. And he does so many things for people that no one ever hears about. He visits so many people in the hospital, he brings meals to people who needs them. He's just the kind of guy who really likes to help out."
