[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23344-23345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO TOM KELLY

  Mr. SPECTER. When Ada Mae Groetzinger left Russell High in the spring 
of 1946, Tom Kelly became the debate coach. Tom Kelly had not had 
experience as a debate coach. He was the drama coach. He directed the 
school plays ``Lost Horizon'' and ``Nothing But The Truth,'' and was 
very adept at that. But having inherited an extraordinary group of high 
school debaters, Tom Kelly was our coach when we won the State AA 
championship in the spring of 1947.
  With the experience he gained at Russell High School, he then went on 
to Hutchinson Junior College, where he won national championships and 
was an outstanding teacher in his own right.
  He gave two lectures to us which have carried forth with me to this 
day. Every Friday, when we would prepare to go to a debate tournament, 
Mr. Kelly would organize the students and start to tell us about the 
forthcoming trip. His slogan was ``Don't choke up in the clutch.'' That 
means: Don't get too nervous to do your job. ``Don't choke up in the 
clutch.'' We would go to the tournament, characteristically come back 
having won the tournament, and on Monday he would again address the 
high school debaters and say: ``Don't rest on your laurels.'' Those 
were Tom Kelly's words, which have carried through to this day.
  I made these comments and was reminded of the outstanding educational 
experience from those two high school debate coaches as I reflected on 
the events going to Salt Lake City for Kent Shearer's funeral. This 
past May, over the Memorial Day recess, Kent Shearer, Steve Mills, Gene 
Balloun, and I--the four debaters on the high

[[Page 23345]]

school team--paid a visit to Ada Mae Groetzinger, who is since married 
and is now Ada Mae Groetzinger Haury, in her retirement home in Newton, 
KS.
  It was a good event to have the four of us get together. At that 
time, Kent was not feeling well. He suffered from emphysema. It was a 
good occasion for the group to get together with our high school coach 
just a few months before Kent passed away.

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