Atlantic City Racing Association signed by John B. Kelly, Sr. - 1944-1952 dated Autograph Stock Certificate

Stock printed by Goes and signed by John B. Kelly as president. Kelly was an Olympian who won 3 gold medals and was the father of Grace Kelly! Portrait and biography included with stock.  Please specify color.

John Brendan Kelly Sr. (October 4, 1889 – June 20, 1960) was an American triple Olympic champion, the first in the sport of rowing. The Philadelphia-based Kelly also was a multimillionaire in the bricklaying and construction industry. He also was involved in politics, serving as Pennsylvania secretary of revenue^[and running unsuccessfully for mayor of Philadelphia in the 1935 Philadelphia mayoral election.

Kelly had four children. They included actress Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco (thus Kelly is the maternal grandfather of Albert II, Prince of Monaco), and Jack Kelly Jr., an accomplished rower who served as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Kelly was born in Philadelphia, one of 10 children of Irish immigrants John Henry Kelly (1847–1917), who emigrated from his homestead near Newport, County Mayo, in 1869, and Mary Ann Costello (1852–1926), who arrived in the U.S. in 1867.He attended public schools and at night attended the Spring Garden Institute.

In 1907, he began bricklaying in Philadelphia as an apprentice at his brother Patrick's construction firm. Standing 6'2", he was a gifted athlete and competed in football and basketball in addition to rowing, which he learned on the Schuylkill River. By 1916, Kelly was a national rowing champion and the best sculler in the United States. As part of the World War I call up, Kelly joined the United States Army as a private in October 1917. He rose to the rank of lieutenant by the time he was discharged in April 1919. While in the Army, Kelly entered the armed forces boxing tournament as a heavyweight and ran up a 12–0 record before being waylaid by a broken ankle. Future world professional boxing champion Gene Tunney won the tournament. In later years, Kelly would kid Tunney: "Aren't you lucky I broke my ankle?"

Following his Army discharge in 1919, Kelly continued dominating the single scull. He also started a brickwork contracting company in Philadelphia, John B. Kelly, Inc., with a $7,000 loan from his brothers George, a future Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and Walter, who was a popular vaudeville actor. A self-promoter, Kelly coined the slogan "Kelly for Brickwork", which was often seen at local construction sites.

In 1919, Kelly played professional football for the Holmesburg Athletic Club. The team would win the 1919 and 1920 Philadelphia City Championships. In a 1919 game against a team from Camden, New Jersey, Kelly scored three touchdowns in just the first quarter of the game. Kelly won 126 straight races in the single scull in 1919 and 1920, a six-time U.S. national champion who was one of the most popular figures in the sport

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