Banner career gets Kell in Hall of Fame

To a man, everyone agrees Kell was way "ahead of his time."

Now, a huge dose of respect finally caught up with the former Tennessee football star on Tuesday morning.

The two-time consensus UT All-American is a National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame inductee.

"This has been some kind of day," Kell said from his home in Dalton, Ga. "When you get nominated for something like this, all you can think is, 'I'm just glad to be in the hunt with a lot of these guys.' "

Kell, who played center and guard at UT 1968-1970, will be recognized at a Dec. 5 dinner in New York City and officially enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., in the summer of 2007.

He's the 21st former Vol to be selected to college football's Hall of Fame.

"Chip and I played together and I think we were one year apart," UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. "I was the 'other' guard, and that's truly the way it was."

Fulmer still remembers the first time he saw Kell in the UT weight room.

"He was just a phenomenal football player and way ahead of his time," Fulmer said. "When I got there, I saw him bench press 500 pounds. Back then, if people were doing 300, it was a big deal.

"There were things in practice they didn't even allow him to do because he was so much more physical than everybody else. He was an incredible specimen, an incredible football player and a great guy."

Former UT coach and athletic director Doug Dickey had the same kind of memories of Kell.

"Chip was one of the most powerful athletes that I had ever coached at that time," Dickey said in a UT release. "He was way ahead of his time in development by use of weight training, and he became a true leader on the football team."

Kell is one of only four Vols to earn three-time All-SEC recognition, joining fullback and teammate Curt Watson (1969-71), offensive guard Mickey Marvin (1974-76) and placekicker Jeff Hall (1995-96, 1998).

Not only was he legendary in the weight room, Kell was a semi-legend around the streets of Knoxville.

"He loved his cars," Fulmer said. "Not that I'm condoning this, but I've seen many a drag race right out in front of Gibbs Hall and on Lake Loudon Boulevard."

Kell had a Chevelle 396 he admitted to "hot-rod around campus" from time to time.

When he wasn't doing that, he was dominating SEC competition on Saturday afternoons.

He honed his skills on UT's practice field against some of his fellow Vols.

"Steve Kiner and Jack Reynolds were two of the toughest," Kell said. "Kiner was athletic and talented. Reynolds would just as soon tear your head off as look at you."

Kell and his UT teammates went 28-5-1 during 1968-1970, including an 11-1 season with a 34-13 victory against Air Force in the Sugar Bowl their senior season.

Kell received the Jacobs Award as the SEC's best blocker in 1969 and 1970, played in the 1971 Senior Bowl Game and was the 1969 SEC shot put (56 feet, 1/2 inch) champion. He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Others in in the 2006 Hall of Fame class:

Players - Bobby Anderson, Colorado; Benny Blades, Miami; Carl Eller, Minnesota; Steve Emtman, Washington; Thomas Everett, Baylor; Chad Hennings, Air Force; Mike Phipps, Purdue; Mike Rozier, Nebraska; Jeff Siemon, Stanford; Bruce Smith, Virginia Tech; Emmitt Smith, Florida; Charlie Ward, Florida State.

Coaches - Joe Paterno (Penn State), Bobby Bowden (Florida State).

Kell was drafted in the 17th round by the San Diego Chargers and played two years in the Canadian Football League with the Edmonton Eskimos.

He has been an off-and-on high school football coach in Georgia. The 57-year-old former Vol is between coaching jobs and is working at Crossroads Academy in Dalton, Ga. He has twin daughters, Abby and Annie, 16, and a son, Dusty, 27, who lives in Knoxville, and two grandchildren.