He was a prominent end and halfback for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt Commodores football teams.

[2] He was captain of the undefeated and SIAA champion 1910 team, led as well by the likes of W. E. Metzger and Ray Morrison.

Neely recalled the event: "The score tells the story a good deal better than I can.

All I want to say is that I never saw a football team fight any harder at every point than Vanderbilt fought today – line, ends, and backfield.

[4][5] He was a schoolteacher, a member of the board of directors of the Rutherford County Creamery and manager of the Production Credit Association of Springfield.