J. Bob Kelly
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1946)
John Robert Kelly (born June 6, 1946) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 425 games in the National Hockey League with the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Chicago Black Hawks between 1973 and 1979. Although official NHL records cite him as Bob Kelly, he was commonly known during his NHL career as J. Bob Kelly to differentiate himself from the Bob Kelly who played primarily with the Philadelphia Flyers at that time. Known for his size, strength and toughness, he was nicknamed "Battleship" during his playing days.
Career statistics
References
Duplacey, James (1998). Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports. pp. 1164. ISBN 0-8362-7114-9.
“J. Bob Kelly” enters the record as canadian ice hockey player (born 1946). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kelly, Canadian and hockey can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“J. Bob Kelly” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kelly, Canadian and hockey provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2907727. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1973, 1979 and 1998.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “J. Bob Kelly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.