Shannon Kelley is a former
American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
quarterback
The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
, coach and businessman. He was the
starting
Start can refer to multiple topics:
* Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air
* Starting lineup in sports
* Starts use in sport race
* Standing start, and rolling start, i ...
quarterback of the
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
Longhorns at the beginning of 1988. After graduating, he married Olympian and popular American gymnast
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Retton's per ...
and after pursuing a business career, went into college coaching. He last served as the assistant head football coach at
Houston Christian University
Houston Christian University (HCU), formerly Houston Baptist University (HBU), is a private Baptist university in Houston, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Its Cultural Arts Center houses three museums: the ...
, before returning to the business world working for
NETSYNC.
High school
Kelley was a Class 5A All-State quarterback at Houston Memorial High School.
Longhorn career
After seeing limited action in two games in 1985 and none in 1986, Kelley entered the 1987 season as the backup to
Bret Stafford. Kelley first saw significant playing time in the second game of the season against BYU after Stafford went down with an injury. Down by 12 points at the time, he led them back to within five. The next week, in a blowout win over Oregon State, he came in during the third quarter and scored his first touchdown with an 18-yard touchdown run, but hurt his ankle. Later in the season, against Houston, Kelley would again replace an injured Stafford. Up at the time Stafford went down, the Longhorns blew a 14-point third-quarter lead and gave up 31 points in the fourth quarter to lose by 20. The next week, Kelley made his first career start, a 24–21 win over TCU, but Stafford returned and Kelley saw sparse action over the next two games. That season, the Longhorns went 6-5 and did not go to a bowl game.
Kelley entered the 1988 season as the unquestioned starter at quarterback; however, in games against the University of North Texas and University of Oklahoma, he was replaced by
Mark Murdock. Murdock played solidly in those games and in a blowout win over New Mexico. In the game against Arkansas, Kelley was again pulled in favor of Murdock, who nearly led the team back from a 24–3 deficit. The Arkansas game would be his last start, as Murdock replaced him as the starter. The transition from Kelley to Murdock went smoothly, with no tension or harsh feelings between the two. "Shannon is a real classy guy. We got to be friends before the season and I know that this is hard for him to handle," Murdock said. Kelley finished with a record of 4-3 as a starter.
Records
* UT - Highest Completion Percentage, (min 70 attempts) (63.5%), season, surpassed by
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
in 1994
* UT - Highest Completion Percentage, (min 100 attempts) (56.2%), career, surpassed by
Richard Walton in 1988
Marriage and professional career
Kelley began dating
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Retton's per ...
, winner of the Olympic gold medal in the Gymnastic Individual All-around competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, while in college. They were engaged in 1989, shortly before he graduated, and married in 1990. They have four daughters. One of Shannon's daughters is
McKenna Kelley
McKenna Lane Kelley (born April 15, 1997) is a retired American artistic gymnast.
Early life
McKenna Kelley was born on April 15, 1997, in Houston, Texas. She is the second of four children of Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton and for ...
, Level 10 gymnast who won the 2014
Nastia Liukin Cup
The Nastia Liukin Cup (formerly the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup from 2010–11) is an annual artistic gymnastics competition held in the United States and hosted by Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin.
History
In August 2009, USA Gymnastics announce ...
. They divorced in February 2018 for undisclosed reasons.
After school, Kelley earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas in Houston and became a successful partner in an investment firm and real estate developer in Houston.
Coaching career
Kelley decided to pursue his dream job as a college football coach and in 2009 was hired as the quarterbacks coach at Division II Fairmont State University in his wife's hometown of Fairmont, WV. He stayed for two seasons and then became the running backs coach at Division II California (PA) University for the 2011 season.
In 2012, he was hired as the assistant coach, primarily working with running backs, at Division I FCS Houston Baptist University for the Huskies' first season of collegiate football. He left the team in 2020 and became an account manager with NETSYNC.
References
External links
Houston Baptist ProfileFairmont State ProfileProfile of Kelley family
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelley, Shannon
Living people
American football quarterbacks
Texas Longhorns football players
Players of American football from Houston
Kelley family
Year of birth missing (living people)