Kelly McGillis

Everyone knows that actress Kelly McGillis has starred in such movies as: Witness, Top Gun, The Accused. There are actually 33 films which Kelly has done, her first being: 'Reuben, Reuben' (1982).She also performs in many plays and has recently performed this fall 2004 season in: Macbeth at the Shakespearean Theatre in the Nation's Capital. For a full list of her works go to website: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mcgillis.jsrpages/fkmx.htm

But no one knows the real Kelly, and what she has done for this Flag Football Tournament in Key West. Read on.

photo by: Michele Wisniewski

 Coming back from the 8 month IWFFA - Promotional Tour of the US in 1999, I was thinking of the Dinah Shores Classic Golf event on the west coast.

That event became such a huge sporting event for women, that ... why not have another such event on the east coast?

Kelly had been supporting our tournament for many years, by throwing in the ball to start the games, hosting our awards at her restaurant. Why not ask her to officially endorse our tournament and create this east coast women's sporting event.

So, we met and I explained to her the essence of the IWFFA. That our goal is to offer girls and women the opportunity to play flag football so that they can learn the skills on the field, then take them off the field to better compete with the men in the business, political, social worlds to offer female influence in world affairs (a pretty radical theory)

and she believed in that idea and since, has allowed us to use her name for our event thus attracting much media coverage

More than just a name

 It was Kelly's idea for us to create a parade, which brings teams with their national and state flags, team banners,

to show the world who we are. This event has created one of our top highlights for the tournament and shows the pride of all our participants.

 

                             A Very active participant

 

 

Not only has she shared her ideas in making the event better, but has also: written invitations to: Rosie O Donald, Opra (to name a few). sponsored the girls teams, loose women's team and played on our celebrity team, and yes...... is officially a "Loose Woman". She has signed autographs for our players during our autograph session, has presented every athlete their tournament pin with either a hand shake or kiss on the cheek and has been at our tournaments (2000 and 2001) from start to finish. She has been very much a part of this event.(Photo to left: Loose Women's Team 2000/ Kelly is backrow center)

What people don't know

 During the 2000 tournament, Kelly played on the Loose Women's team while also performing in the Key West play: 'Popcorn'. In the daytime, she was flag football player, taking on some bruises (her arms and legs showed some black and blue coloring). That night during her performance, she had to hide her bruises from her director. The next day, on the field, instead of quitting (for the sake of her career), she just told the opposing team to "take it easy" she had to work that night

 During the 2001 tournament parade, we forgot the banner to announce the parade. Kelly was in the lead car, and when the spectators were asking Kelly what the parade was for..... Kelly shouted back "this is the International Women's Flag Football tournament" and then towards the end of the parade asked the driver to explain to the spectators, because she was loosing her voice and had her leading role in the play: 'Iguanna' that weekend. Again, she played that year on our Celebrity team, where Kelly quarterbacked and ran a great series of plays "the Kelly Plays" to score a touch down.

 

We are lucky to have Kelly McGillis Support us because in so many ways, her name, support and participation has really made the Kelly McGillis Classic a fantastic event.