• U of A Judo coach (1954-66), during which time the team was undefeated in university competition.
• Appointed U of A head athletic therapist in 1967; acted as athletic trainer for the Golden Bears football and hockey teams.
• Served on the Canadian training staff at numerous national and international sporting competitions.
• Known as a leader in the profession of athletic therapy, Ray became an expert in rehabilitation medicine, lecturing to university classes, conducting workshops and seminars for athletic trainers, and contributing to articles in academic journals.

Ray Kelly is the first person to be inducted into the Wall of Fame who is not an "official" university graduate. Yet he holds the status of both a distinguished graduate of, and a distinguished teacher at the University of Alberta.

Born in Saskatoon, Ray's family moved to Edmonton where he graduated from Victoria High School in 1947. He played basketball and competed in baseball and long distance bicycle racing but in the early 1950's developed a strong interest in Judo that would shape his future and bring him to the University of Alberta as a coach and later as its first full time athletic therapist.

Ray began coaching Judo at the University in 1954 and over the next two decades acquired an outstanding record. His teams went undefeated 17 consecutive years in intercollegiate competition. In the process, Ray made a contribution to the education and development of the students whose lives he touched. That in itself may have been worthy of being named to the Wall of Fame, but it was only the beginning.

In 1966, Ray began a new career as athletic therapist. It was the vision of Dr. M.L. Van Vliet that the treatment of sport injuries should be developed in a professional manner within the Faculty. Ray Kelly, after appropriate courses and practical experience on a part time basis, was appointed Head Athletic Therapist in 1967, a position he held until his retirement in August 1986. The initial facilities in which he worked with all athletic teams and many others were spartan when compared to the Sports Medicine Clinic that currently serves this University.

But Ray developed and grew in stature as a professional. Very soon, he was advising students, publishing professional articles and assisting researchers in rehabilitation medicine. Along the way, he was invited to speak at hundreds of workshops, conventions and to lecture to countless classes. He also served as athletic therapist for innumerable national and international games and sporting events throughout the world. Along with others, he was at the vanguard in establishing sports therapy as a discipline at the University of Alberta.

Always however, Ray's first concern and love was for Golden Bear and Panda athletes. It was he to whom these young men and women often turned for more than tape, a bandage or a whirlpool treatment. He was counsellor, confessor, motivator and sage.

In retirement, Ray and his wife Joan enjoy life with their three married daughters along with seven grandchildren.

Ray Kelly is remembered by the thousands of young men and women, students, staff and many others from all around Edmonton and elsewhere that he has treated and advised over the years. The leadership offered to legions of undergraduate and graduate students will provide a legacy of his dedication and skill. An important part of that legacy was his leadership of the emerging profession of Athletic Therapy across Canada and beyond.