CONWAY, Ark. (January 10, 2013) - Longtime Hendrix swimming and diving coach Jim Kelly is the recipient of the 2012 Elijah Pitts Award for career achievement given by the Conway Athletic Awards Commission.
He will be recognized at the CAAC's annual luncheon at noon Sunday, Feb. 17, at Central Baptist College's Mabee Student Center. Tickets to the luncheon are $25 each and are available by calling 450-6888.
Kelly, a Vermont native, has served as both the men's and women's swimming and diving coach at Hendrix since 1982. He has coached 80 All-Americans and is a 2005 inductee of the Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor. He has also been involved in the Aquakids swim program.
"Jim's tenure at Hendrix epitomizes what the school is all about, success at academics and athletics. And he has done it for 30 years," said CAAC chairman David Grimes.
Pitts was a graduate of Conway's old Pine Street High School and played with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960's, helping them win the first two Super Bowls, scoring the first rushing touchdown in a Super Bowl game.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.