Travis and Jason Kelce help make Olympic dream come true for family of hockey stars

Their shared ritual was on display at Team USA’s semifinal game Monday night; It was only made possible by an outpouring of donations to a GoFundMe campaign, and by far the largest individual contribution came from NFL brother tandem and local allies Travis and Jason Kelce.

“When he walks in, he looks around,” his grandmother, Ernestine Gray, told The News. “So I say, ‘I won’t do anything to distract her.’ Then she saw me and I waved at her and then she waved back.”

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Edwards, the first black hockey player to represent the United States at the Olympics, has introduced her own team in Milan. The fundraiser allowed 10 family members and four friends to travel from the United States to Italy for their Olympic debut. Others paid their own expenses.

After the game, Edwards told the AP that his family’s presence in Milan “means everything to me.” “They helped me get here and be a part of this team and achieve my dream, so it means a lot,” he said.

‘How would we afford it?’

Hours before puck drop on Monday, the Edwards family was ready.

Edwards’ mother, Charone Gray-Edwards, has strict rules about travel. She ordered everyone to meet in the hotel lobby 2 1/2 hours before kickoff, dressed in their Team USA best. They called a taxi van to accommodate the large group, including Edwards’ parents, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and older brother, and loaded up.

Her parents weren’t sure the whole family would be able to make the trip when she called them a month before the Olympics to tell them she had been chosen for the team. They could cover the costs for two people, but the entire family roster (all of whom have supported her over the years) would have been too expensive. And they hadn’t booked early flights or set cheaper hotel rates for fear of cursing her.

“We had to start talking about how to get money,” Gray-Edwards said. “Who would go? How would we allow it?”

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The family is used to watching her from afar. When Edwards was 13, he left home to attend Bishop Kearney Selects Academy in Rochester, New York, before moving on to the University of Wisconsin, where he is playing his final season for the top-ranked Badgers.

The general consensus is that Edwards will be selected in the top three of the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft in June, along with Wisconsin teammate Caroline Harvey and Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy.

Still, Edwards’ Olympic debut was something everyone wanted to see.

Her father, Robert Edwards, started the GoFundMe campaign, titled: “Send Laila’s family to the Olympics to cheer her on!” They set an ambitious goal of $50,000 so they wouldn’t have to choose between a ticket to one of their games and paying the electric bill in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

“There are a lot of ups and downs in playing hockey at this high level, so you’re going to need someone there,” his father said. “So I thought, ‘Well, to hell with pride: let’s do a fundraiser.’”

‘Queen of Cleveland’

The Kelce brothers grew up in the same town as Edwards. They have been fans of hers since 2023, when she became the first Black player to make the senior US women’s national team, and they featured her on their popular podcast, “New Heights.”

The largest donation to GoFundMe was $10,000, from someone who remained anonymous; Edwards has confirmed that it came from the Kelces. As of early Thursday, the Edwards family had raised more than $61,000.

What’s more, Travis Kelce reached out to offer advice to the “Queen of Cleveland,” a nickname her teammates gave her after a game between the United States and Canada played there in November. And Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, were in the stands Monday to cheer on the American team during its 5-0 victory over Sweden. Edwards, a defenseman-turned-forward, had an assist.

The generosity of the Kelces and locals is another example of how the tight-knit town works, her parents said, even though their daughter moved away at a young age. Considered the face of the future of women’s hockey, Edwards has also inspired the black community in Ohio and beyond.

While diversity is reflected in many sports such as football, it has not made a dent in winter sports and there are very few black athletes at the Milan Cortina Olympics. Men’s and women’s hockey worldwide, including in the United States, remains predominantly white.

“Just to hear all the people of color say, ‘I’ve never watched hockey before and I’m tuning in,’” Gray-Edwards said. “I’d love to know what the ratings are. Because everyone at home, everyone’s talking about it. All these people are trying to buy T-shirts.”

For Gray-Edwards, some of the most meaningful moments have been watching little children approach her daughter for an autograph.

“That means they don’t say, ‘Oh, this is a girl who plays hockey.’ They say, ‘This is a good hockey player.’ So it doesn’t matter if she’s black, a woman, she’s a good player,” Gray-Edwards said.

But Gray-Edwards’ fondest memories probably won’t be the games or the scores: They will come from watching her 91-year-old mother and 22-year-old daughter together on the court.

“You can see them waving at each other. My mom likes to jump and oh, she loves it,” Gray-Edwards said.

John Wawrow in Milan contributed to this report.