In the fall of 2007, on a visit to the University of Cincinnati, Derek Wolfe became fast friends with a recruit from Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Wolfe played defensive line, and the other kid played quarterback, but they recognized in each other similar Northeast Ohio values. They were hanging together at a campus fair when a Bearcats football player strode toward them with a giant beer mug in his hand and a Hawaiian shirt billowing off his shoulders, unbuttoned to reveal an offensive lineman’s belly.

University of Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones, left, stands with the Kelce family in 2010. (The Washington Post Illustration/Photo by Brett Hansbauer/University of Cincinnati Athletics)

That was how Wolfe discovered his new friend, Travis Kelce, had a brother named Jason on the team.

In the years since, Jason, two years older, has grown into an icon as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting center. Travis has produced historic tight end statistics as Patrick Mahomes’s favorite target on the Kansas City Chiefs. Both all-pros, potential Hall of Famers and rambunctious personalities, Jason and Travis on Sunday will become the first brothers to play each other in the Super Bowl.

They last played together at Cincinnati, during college years that shaped their lives. The seeds of what they would become were planted on practice fields, in weight rooms and at house parties. They overlapped for three years but shared a game field for only one, an undefeated regular season that ended in the Sugar Bowl. Jason’s work ethic and simmering intensity transformed him from walk-on linebacker to NFL center. Travis harnessed remarkable athleticism, found his position and overcame a career-threatening suspension with brotherly love, firm guidance and a loaned bed.

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Cincinnati is “probably where I changed and grew the most as an individual,” Jason said this week in Phoenix. Travis recently finished the UC degree he fell short of earning during his playing days. When the Kelces interviewed their father on their podcast this week, Ed Kelce wore a Bearcats football jersey.

The Kelce brothers will always remember the one college season they played together. Travis might owe his career to the year they didn’t.

A gladiator and a hooper

Jason was lightly recruited as a linebacker and running back — he averaged 9.5 yards per carry at Cleveland Heights High — and walked on at Cincinnati. He earned the scout team defensive MVP as a freshman in 2006. In 2007, Brian Kelly replaced Mark Dantonio as coach before the season and needed quick offensive linemen to run his spread scheme. Strength coach Paul Longo told Jason, “You know, son, you’d make a great center.” Jason thought, “What is this guy talking about?”

By 2008, Jason had become the starting left guard. “There wasn’t a day when you didn’t know his butt was out there,” said Walter Stewart, a freshman defensive lineman that fall who is now a Cincinnati assistant coach.

The intensity Jason required to force his way on to the field sometimes surfaced violently. During one scrimmage, he scuffled with a defensive teammate. He tore the defender’s helmet off and chucked it into the bleachers. “I’ve never seen a helmet be thrown further,” said Tony Pike, the Bearcats’ 2009 starting quarterback, who now hosts a radio show in Cincinnati. “… I’m like, ‘Man, I’m glad that guy’s blocking for me.’ ”