Mick Cronin reveals Travis Kelce's want to play basketball for Cincinnati

Coming out of Cleveland Heights High School, like many of today’s best players, Travis Kelce was a two-sport star. While a two-star football rating coming of high school doesn’t jump out as a future NFL great, Kelce’s offer list comprised elite schools such as Miami, Pittsburgh, Kansas and of course the Cincinnati Bearcats.

However, Kelce wasn’t satisfied with just playing football, as the future third-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft also wanted to play for coach Mick Cronin and the Bearcats’ basketball squad, as revealed by Cronin on Julian Edelman’s “Games with Names.”

“Akron, Kent State. That was his level. 'Cause he's a power forward at 6'5. He was an undersized power forward. He could dunk. I mean, you gotta remember, he's thinner at the time,” opened Cronin, who was friends with Kelce’s high school basketball coach Barry Egan.

“So he comes to Cincinnati, he's on his visit. So he tells Brian Kelly, ‘I know Coach Cronin,’ so here they come. ... He's standing there, but Brian didn't know I knew Travis. He's like, ‘I'm gonna play basketball coach.’”

While stats on Kelce’s time at Cleveland Heights are not publicly confirmed, there is footage of his final game with Cleveland Heights, where he compiled 16 points and 11 rebounds before being subbed out after just 19 minutes of action thanks to foul trouble.

“…I’m like, ‘dude, you're gonna have to get grades, or he's [Brian] not gonna let you play both. And you can maybe help us off the bench. We'll see how your grades are. I grabbed Coach Kelly. I said, ‘BK, he's a big-time quarterback. I know him as a basketball player. He goes, ‘Oh, no, I'm moving his a** to left tackle,’” laughed Cronin.

Kelce, of course, ended up sticking with football and instead of left tackle, made the move from quarterback to tight end where he lit up college football during his latter two seasons, totaling 872 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2011 and 2012, before making the jump to the NFL.

Kelce has current connections with new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, all the way back to Calhoun’s day as an assistant at West Virginia, where Kelce had seriously debated playing for head coach Bob Huggins.

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