By now the death of sports columnist Richard Kellam is widely known. The obituary by Bradshaw & Sons Funeral Home of his passing on March 24 — the day after his 82nd birthday — described highlights of his life and career and will be published in the April 8 edition of the County Times.
There’s no need to repeat those words, but perhaps we can add some context because his passion for local sports will leave a legacy that we sadly predict no one in the future will ever replicate.
And for that, the Crisfield community is much poorer today than it was just a few weeks ago.
Philip Richard Kellam, he never went by Philip, was the son of Alex Kellam and Dorothy Schwatka Kellam and grew up on Columbia Avenue. His father, who died in March 1986, was a Coast Guard Reservist, waterman, sports fisherman, insurance salesman, park ranger and a renowned folklorist and storyteller of national acclaim.
His mother taught in Deal Island, Smith Island and at the former Crisfield Elementary #3, retiring in 1970 after more than 30 years of service to education. An avid golfer and bridge player she died in December 1999.
At Crisfield High School Richard played on the soccer and golf teams. When a rising senior and with his father president of the Crisfield (Men’s) Softball League Richard’s byline first appeared in The Crisfield Times in June 1961, followed by coverage of Crisfield Little League.
That fall at the start of his senior year he was selected to be on the Athletic Committee for the 1962 Sea Shell, the high school yearbook.
After graduation he was off to the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and this future Sunday School teacher and lay leader at Immanuel United Methodist Church was among five “college young people” leading a Sunday service over Christmas break.
In 1966 he was still at college and among the students recognized at the church on Student Recognition Sunday. Not many months later he was a 23-year-old Army Private, who in June of 1967 graduated from a cooking course at Fort Dix, N.J.
Back home in 1968 he was again with Little League as the league statistician and writing game results for the paper. That fall he coached the Colts flag football team for ages 9-12 and in 1969 when working for the Recreation Commission he was a Biddy League Basketball referee. In February 1969 his byline was over a story about the Blue Boys’ 17-13 win over the Red Devils during a game at the Armory.
In the fall of 1969 he started reporting on CHS soccer and field hockey in addition to submitting stories about flag football and club men’s and women’s volleyball. They appeared under a heading featuring a herald trumpeting “Fall Fanfare of Sports.”
At the start of 1970 and continuing for many years it was called “Kellam’s Kolumn” and under that banner his sports reports were packaged.
His affiliation with The Crisfield Times was cemented from that point forward including through its name changes to Somerset County Times.
In May 2023, he was honored with a “Walter Red Smith” award for his contributions to sports journalism during the William “Bill” Cain Coaches Hall of Fame induction at CHS.
When covering games it was more than scores, it was reporting player names and their accomplishments, getting interviews and comments from them and their coaches.
He respected the players, and respected the game — but would point out in his reports when officiating left something to be desired.
If there’s reflection in heaven no doubt Richard laments the fact that his multi-part series on basketball standout Andre Collins ended just before the University of Maryland Terrapins became national champions — and Collins sinking the last basket inside the former Cole Field House.
He completed the 2025-26 fall and winter season sports, and was on hand March 20 for CHS baseball and softball opening day, one a tie and the other a win, his last story assignments.
In the April 8 edition of the County Times there will be a final Richard Kellam story, one not yet published from the end of basketball season.
His absence will be felt during Little League opening day, and he supported the Mike Sterling 10K during Crab Derby weekend from the start, helping to hand out popsicle sticks as runners crossed the finish line in the days before electronic timing.
If you participated in sports in Crisfield over the last 65 years, whether a standout or just a name on the roster, it’s likely you have a Richard Kellam story inside a box of keepsakes or pasted to the pages of a scrapbook.
Only Butch Waller, the coach for 60 seasons of Wicomico High School’s basketball team, has a career comparable to Richard’s. And Waller was someone Richard wanted to interview.
If you didn’t play sports, then Richard may have been the man who put down the carpet in your home. Self-employed in that field for decades, he especially recalled the shag carpet craze of the 1970s when work took him to Ocean City. He also did work on Smith and Tangier islands.
He said recently he had gotten to the point he couldn’t take on any large jobs, and also that good help to assist him was hard to find.
The high school plans to add Richard’s picture to the Coaches Hall of Fame display case at the hallway leading into the War Memorial Gymnasium. In the one attached to this column taken last fall he is beaming because the Crabbers had defeated Pocomoke 2-1 in a soccer shootout during the 1A East Region II playoffs.
That win not only advanced the Crabbers but gave Coach Harold Frock his 100th career win, someone Richard was equally proud of, having covered the 1999 CHS graduate during his playing days and becoming lifelong friends.
Sitting nearby on this writer’s table are the rosters for each of the spring sports teams — printed in a large font — that will now never get delivered and placed for easy reference near his computer and writing stand.
And when the phone doesn’t ring on Sunday afternoon to tell me it’s time to pickup his weekly column, it’ll be another sign that his pen has been put down for good.
Funeral services are 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 1 at Immanuel UMC with urn interment following at Sunnyridge Memorial Park.
