CINCINNATI — Longtime University of Cincinnati football radio analyst and UC Athletics Hall of Famer Jim Kelly Jr. died Sunday night, according to the University of Cincinnati athletic department.
Kelly, who had been in the radio booth every year since 1995, battled cancer. He was 71 years old.
“Working with Jim was one of the greatest joys of my professional life,” UC radio broadcaster Dan Hoard said in a news release. “In addition to being a great broadcaster and friend, Jim was the link among generations of Bearcat football players. He got to know them as a kid hanging around his dad’s teams, as a teammate in the 1970s, and as a broadcaster for more than three decades. No one loved the University of Cincinnati more.”
Kelly Jr., a 1972 Moeller High School graduate, took time away from the booth this season to focus on his health. UC’s 70-0 win over visiting Northwestern State Sept. 13 was Kelly’s final game in the radio booth.
Kelly, a former UC football player, led the Bearcats in receptions for three consecutive seasons from 1973 to 1975, and was inducted into UC’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017. He caught 76 passes for 964 yards in his career.
He was the son of Jim Kelly Sr., a 1978 UC Hall of Fame inductee. The UC Athletics Hall of Fame is named after Jim Kelly Sr., who played at UC from 1947 to 1950.
Jim Kelly Sr. served as a coach and administrator until 1994. The Kellys join William Keating Sr. and his sons, Charles and William Jr., as the only father-son combinations in the UC Hall of Fame.
Kelly Jr. played football at Moeller and was inducted into Moeller's Gerry Faust Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985. He also ran track in high school.
He told UC Athletics reporter Bill Koch in 2017 that he grew up around UC football at Nippert Stadium.
"It was embedded in me because I enjoyed going to Nippert Stadium when I was 8, 10, 12 years old," Kelly told Koch. "I became a ball boy in my early years in high school. I remember being on the field in the 1968 Miami game as a ball boy catching the (ball) that (UC's) Jim O'Brien kicked for the winning field goal. The memories are great at an early age."
After graduating from UC with a business degree, Kelly Jr. was signed as a free agent by the Chicago Bears, but an injury ended his football career. He returned to Cincinnati as a graduate assistant coach before embarking on a career in business.
Kelly Jr. joined the radio booth as the color analyst in 1988, and outside of taking three years off from 1992 to 1994, he has been a consummate voice on Bearcats football broadcasts alongside Paul Keels, George Von Benko and later Hoard for the last 26 years.
Kelly had a firsthand view and provided the soundtrack for the rise of Cincinnati football from the Tim Murphy era into Rick Minter’s 10-year stint and Mark Dantonio’s breakthrough in the Big East. He was on the call for the legendary “Pike to Binns” game, the Big East Championships and BCS Bowl appearances under Brian Kelly in 2008 and 2009 and the Butch Jones and Tommy Tuberville tenures.
He also watched Luke Fickell, Sauce Gardner and Desmond Ridder take the Bearcats to the Peach Bowl and College Football Playoff in 2020 and 2021 and ushered in the current Scott Satterfield era in the Big 12, including the first three games of the 2025 season.
"Our hearts are with Jim Kelly and his family,” Cincinnati Director of Athletics John Cunningham said in a statement. “Jim embodied Bearcats football: growing up at Nippert Stadium and choosing to stay in Cincinnati to play college football on that same field. He stood with the program through thick and thin for more than 30 years in the radio booth. He was a standout player, a beloved radio voice and a Hall of Famer. No one loved the Bearcats more than Jim. We are thankful he was able to be surrounded by his teammates from the 1975 team this past weekend. We were all blessed to know him.”
Jim Kelly Jr. is survived by his wife, Sarah, and his sons, Kevin, Dave, Scott and Brian, and their families.
UC Athletics will provide memorial information when it is available.
