Chadron State College Athletics

McKelvey has long been recognized as one of Chadron State’s all-time great football players. He was a triple-threat who earned all-conference honors all five years (yes, five) that he played at CSC. The Eagles were 24-1-1 and outscored their opponents 670-55 during the final three years he played for them.
Listed at 5-foot-8, 175 pounds, McKelvey also helped hand the Eagles a loss. That was in 1919 when he was a junior at Bayard High School. The Tigers had beaten Sidney for the western Nebraska high school championship the previous week and then beat the Eagles 3-0 on McKelvey’s field goal. After the game, CSC officials persuaded McKelvey and teammate Ruffus Trapp, a standout lineman, to join the Eagles once they completed high school.
The number of yards and touchdowns that McKelvey accumulated are not known. Game stories in those days seldom included such details. For example, the story on the 94-0 win over Nebraska Central in 1923 said only that “McKelvey collected an impressive array of touchdowns.”
But he definitely helped the Eagles fly high. In his first season, he caught a pass for a touchdown and kicked the extra point as CSC edged Black Hills State 7-6. Against Nebraska Wesleyan, he returned the opening kickoff 75 yards for a TD and kicked a field goal. That same season, he returned an interception 70 yards against Kearney State.
In 1922, McKelvey ran 40 yards for a touchdown against Kearney, had touchdown runs of 20, 35 and 70 yards against Black Hills, kicked three field goals in the 9-0 win over South Dakota Tech and scored two TDs and booted a field goal against Wayne State
His heroics in 1923 included a dropkicked field goal from the 40-yard line that defeated “seemingly invincible” Grand Island College 3-0. He also kicked a 20-yard field goal and returned an interception 50 yards during a 10-10 tie with Peru State in the season finale that left the Eagles with a 7-0-1 record. He also kicked a field goal, scored a touchdown and was credited with an 80-yard punt against Kearney.
In 1924, the Chadron Journal, while reporting on the all-state team, simply said, “McKelvey, a brilliant, versatile halfback of unquestioned ability, (was) placed on the first team as a matter of course.”
The Eagles went 9-0-0 in 1925. They opened the season with the monumental 3-0 victory over the University of Colorado in Boulder, thanks to McKelvey’s field goal. He also drop-kicked field goals against both Wayne State and Hastings and had a 50-yard touchdown run against South Dakota Tech.
In his final game, CSC defeated Peru State 13-3 with McKelvey scoring all 13 points. He returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown, added the extra point and then booted 24 and 30-yard field goals. He also had an 80-yard punt, the game-story reported.
At the end of the season, the Journal sportwriter said: “McKelvey, unquestionably the outstanding Eagle player, exemplified throughout the season the boundless possibilities of the triple threat. Yet even more conspicious than his running ability was the kicking of the Eagle quarterback. If he had been unable to gain a yard—and he gained many of them—the punting of McKelvey stamped him as a star of outstanding magnitude.”
Not much is known about McKelvey after his football career ended. He apparently had a successful real estate and insurance business in Chadron for a few years, but died before he had reached middle age.  He received a long-overdue honor in 2000 when he was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.