Inductees

As a kid, Porter Ellett lost the use of his right arm in an accident and, as a teenager, it had to be amputated up to the shoulder.

However, Ellett soldiered ahead and wasn’t about to let the situation get the best of him.

And now look. Ellett just finished his seventh season on the Kansas City Chiefs coaching staff – having held several highly important roles – and earned three Super Bowl rings along the way.

In other words, he never gave up, and that is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly honored Ellett with the Art Hains Inspiration Award during the 2024 Enshrinement in Kansas City.

The award is named in honor of the Voice of the Missouri State University Bears and the in-studio host of the Chiefs Radio Network who in 2023 battled back from a near-death experience following a West Nile virus diagnosis.

For Ellett, the moment – that is, any moment when he encounters someone perhaps down on their luck – is not lost on him.

“I think it’s blessed other people, helped them deal with their struggles, more than it’s hurt me,” Ellett once told Y Magazine of how he’s persevered.

When speaking with youths, he offers this advice:

“You should laugh at yourself,” Ellett was quoted as saying. “You should smile. You should ignore people whose opinions don’t matter. Pick the three or four people you are going to listen to. For me, my parents’ opinions matter, my wife’s, God’s, and then Coach (Andy) Reid’s, as far as my job goes. Pick who you’re listening to and just listen to them.”

Ellett’s road to Kansas City is certainly is remarkable.

At age 4 while growing up in Utah, he was riding in the back of a pickup truck, which was carrying a motorcycle in the bed. Ellett fell out when trying to remove himself from the bike, only to fall out of the truck completely. He fractured his skull in three places and damaged the nerves in his right arm.

However, he eventually learned how to shoot a shotgun accurately, do pushups, toss sheep into a corral, use a baseball bat, zip up his jacket, cross monkey bars, reel in a fish and ride a motorcycle.

In high school, he played basketball and baseball. He was the Class 1 MVP as a junior in baseball and selected First Team All-State a year later. In basketball, his high school won the regional championship and was invited to New York City for an appearance on Good Morning America.

After graduation, he served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then enrolled at Brigham Young University. After graduation, he became a tax analyst for Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City but, unhappy with that career, enrolled at Baylor University in 2016.

The goal? To go into sports management.

That’s how his road began to meander to Kansas City. At Baylor, he taught Spanish and met Devin Woodhouse, who married Drew Reid, the daughter of the Chiefs coach. At the time, he and Devin made it a goal to work in the National Football League.

Later that year, Ellett and his wife, Carlie, met up with Drew and Devin at a Chiefs game and were invited to the Reid’s home. That night, the coach heard his story and soon offered him a position on the coaching staff.

Ellett then served three seasons as Reid’s senior assistant and then three as offensive quality control coach. The 2023 season marked his first as assistant running backs coach.

As senior assistant, Ellett’s positive energy shined through and earned everybody’s trust, according to what Reid told Y Magazine.

Ellett went to great lengths to make that job a success for the Chiefs. He worked with the equipment guys, who created a modifired sweatshirt with a pouch sewn in front so he could have play cards sorted and accessible for Reid.

“He’s got them all categorized like a filing system, and he just pulls them out when needs them at practice,” Reid told the magazine. “Now some of the guys with two arms are getting them made so they can be hands free out there.”

Overall, Ellett hasn’t let the loss of his right arm become a weight on his shoulders. Far from it. Instead, he has used the challenge to show others that they, too, can meet any challenge in their life.

“Coach Reid knows how to deal with somebody who has a disability but, like me, doesn’t want to be treated like they’re disabled,” Ellett said. “He’ll tell people, ‘No, don’t think he can’t do something, because he can do it.”