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Kelly Provides Inspirational Words at Halftime of UM Homecoming Game

Former UM signal caller Jim Kelly, the first of the great quarterbacks in the storied Miami history, addressed the crowd at half time and was very inspirational in his brief comments to the audience.

By Scott Salomon
Former UM QB Jim Kelly gives thumbs up to the Homecoming crowd at Sun Life Stadium
Former UM QB Jim Kelly gives thumbs up to the Homecoming crowd at Sun Life Stadium
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jim Kelly, who has battled cancer on two different occasions, and is currently fighting an ancillary infection as a result of his treatments, made a brief statement to the crowd on hand at Sun Life Stadium. He was accepted with a tremendous round of applause at the stadium that he once roamed as the quarterback of the Miami Dolphins rival, the Buffalo Bills.

"I haven't heard that big a cheer in this stadium for a long time and I think you know what I am talking about," Kelly said. "I want to thank you all for that. The resiliency that you have shown me and my family with all of your prayers and support has been very inspirational to us and we want to thank you."

Kelly also had words of praise for his beloved Hurricanes and said that it is time, right now, to lay claim to more success and more national titles for The U.

"We are turning this thing around, we're on the right track and it all starts today against the University of North Carolina," Kelly said. "We will hang more banners in this stadium and we will have more national championships."

Kelly was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame in 2002, in his first year of eligibility and has a spot in the UM Hall of Fame as he was inducted in 1992.  Kelly is best known to UM fans for his leading the Canes into Penn State, where they were 40-point underdogs, and the Canes upset the Nittany Lions, who were ranked number one at the time, in his first collegiate game.