This is the fifth in a series of articles profiling members of the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024

SARVER — Tammie Kelley is doing more than being inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame.

She’s led a Hall of Fame life.

The 1983 Knoch graduate set numerous track and field records there. She went on to Slippery Rock University and became the top-ranked heptathlete in Division II her sophomore year. After college, she ran the Marine Corps Marathon and Tucson Marathon, both in well under four hours. While in the FBI Academy, she broke the male and female record in the Job Related Test (JRT), which includes doing an obstacle course comprised of jumping, climbing over a wall, zigzagging around cones, dragging a dummy and firing a gun in a small space.

“During the JRT, I pulled my arm out of its socket,” Kelley recalled. “My instructor saw and heard it, but informed me I was on record time. I lowered my arm and it went back in place and I shot the gun with my left hand instead of my right.”

Kelley battled injuries throughout her athletic career, yet succeeded at every level of her competition. She will join Josh Barthlow, Brandon Fusco, Kevin Doyle, Lily Grenci, Dana Petruska, John Papa and John Enrietto in being inducted at the BCSHOF banquet at 6:30 p.m. April 27 at Founders Hall on the campus of Butler County Community College.

Inducted into the Knoch High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, Kelley said she was “blown away” when receiving the call explaining her upcoming HOF induction.

“I never saw myself as that great of an athlete,” she said. “I worked hard at and I was OK ... I’m just very humbled by this.”

Kelley set records at Knoch in the 400 meters, 300 intermediate hurdles, 100 meter hurdles, 4x400 relay and 200 meters. Many of her records still stand today, especially with the high school track transition from yards to meters.

Kelley was introduced to track in gym class. Knoch track coach Fred Bernard came to the class, set a hurdle in the middle of the gym and asked Kelley to leap over it.

“I guess they saw something in me,” Kelley said. “They asked me if I wanted to play basketball and run track. Growing up on a farm, I wasn’t sure if my parents would go for it. Once they learned it could lead to a free education, they were fine with it.

“The whole time I ran in high school, my legs hurt. I felt slow. Nobody could figure out why.”

Still, she set records — and wound up lettering in basketball and volleyball as well.

But just before the state meet her sophomore year at SRU, a huge cyst was found under her tailbone. Kelley was pulled from the heptathlon due to concerns it may burst and cause a systemic toxicity issue. She was allowed to do one event at the state meet and Kelley placed sixth in the javelin.

She had surgery a week later and her college career was over.

She became a teacher in Maryland and figured her athletic career was finished.

“A couple of years later, I was feeling better and decided to try running a marathon,” Kelley said. “Just jogging along, I felt so light. In high school, I felt like a Clydesdale when I was running.”

She won the fitness award in the FBI Academy in 1995, beating out all male and female counterparts with a perfect 50 points. That test included a 300-meter run, 2-mile ruin, situps, pushups and pullups. Her name is on the 50 point board“ on the wall in the FBI Academy.

Kelley spent 20 years in the FBI. During her time in Tucson, Ariz,., with the FBI, she ran the Tucson Marathon on a bet with a PD Swat Officer that she couldn’t run it in less than 4 hours, 30 m,inutes. While she had run the Marine Corps Marathon in 3:40, she did little training for Tucson, but still crossed the finish line in 3:20.

“I paid for that one,” Kelley said. “I went through months of physical therapy for overused tendons and all I won was lunch ... definitely not worth it.”

While with the FBI, Kelley was a first responder at the Boston Marathon bombing and 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

“I’m still paying for 9/11,” she said. “I’ve dealt with asthma, COPD, skin cancer, etc., from the toxic dust. Many of my co-workers on the scene that day have since died.”

Kelley now works as an investigator for the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania and lives on the historic family farm in Sarver with her fiancé’ Frank Collins and other family members.

“My fiancé’ and I built a house in a field on the farm,” she said. “I run my own private investigation business on the side. I specialize in finding people.

“I spend a lot of free time cleaning stalls, feeding and riding horses ... and loving every minute of it.”

Tickets to the BCSHOF banquet are available at www.butlersportshall.com or at the Butler Radio Network on Pillow Street in Butler, Parker Appliance in Chicora, Saxonburg Drug or Maddalon Jewelers in Zelienople.