Roy Kidd, Hall of Fame Eastern Kentucky football coach, dies at 91
Legendary Eastern Kentucky football coach Roy Kidd died Tuesday at the age of 91.
The Corbin native served as the head coach of EKU from 1964 to 2002 and led the Colonels to two national championships (1979, 1982) in NCAA Division I-AA, which is now known as the Football Championship Subdivision. EKU also captured 16 Ohio Valley Conference titles and had a pair of national runner-up finishes (1980, 1981).
Kidd ended his career with 314 wins and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003. When he retired from coaching in 2002, he was second in all-time wins among coaches in FCS play.
A memorial service is being planned for Kidd at the EKU Center for the Arts with Bill Fort officiating followed by a private burial in the Richmond Cemetery. The dates and times of both services will be announced later.
"Roy Kidd’s passing is a great loss for EKU, the city of Richmond, Madison County, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the entire college football community," EKU athletics director Matt Roan said in a statement. "Coach Kidd’s impact on the people who were fortunate enough to know him was immeasurable and the pride he felt in being an EKU Colonel was apparent to everyone he met. College football is better for having Roy Kidd on the sidelines, EKU is better for having Roy Kidd on its campus, and we are all better for knowing and working with him. Thank you, Coach!”
EKU named its stadium in his honor and renamed the street in front of it Roy and Sue Kidd Way. The university also erected a statue in his honor outside of the stadium in 2017.
Kidd was a three-sport star at Corbin High School before arriving at EKU, where he became a record-setting Little All-American quarterback while also starring as a center fielder for the Colonels baseball team, batting .300 every season.
He returned to EKU as an assistant football coach in 1963, serving in that role for one season before replacing his mentor, Glenn Presnell, as head coach in 1964. During Kidd's 39-year tenure, he posted 25 consecutive winning seasons, appeared in the I-AA playoffs 17 times and twice won the I-AA National Coach of the Year award. He tutored 55 All-Americans, with 41 of his players going on to sign NFL contracts.
In January, Kidd received the American Football Coaches Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, given to those “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.”
After retiring from coaching, he continued to work part time in EKU's development office.
"I want our people to have pride in this place, work hard to make it nice, get a good education, be a good person when you go out in the world and treat others the way you want to be treated," Kidd once said. "My job was to win games and to make our players good people when they go out in the world."
When Kidd moved to hospice care last week, EKU announced it would wear helmet decals honoring Kidd during its game Saturday against Kentucky. In a rare move that reinforced what Kidd meant to college football in the state, the Wildcats also chose to wear the decals.
"There aren’t enough words to express everything that Coach Kidd meant to Eastern Kentucky University and the EKU football program. Coach Kidd was not only one of the most accomplished coaches in college football history, he was also an amazing ambassador for EKU, Madison County, and the state of Kentucky," Walt Wells, the Colonels current head football coach, said in a statement.
Born Dec. 4, 1931, he was the youngest of Edd and Pearl Bradford Kidd's seven children. Kidd is survived by his wife of 62 years, Susan "Sue" Purcell Kidd, their three children, six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.
Services for Kidd will be held at the EKU Center for the Arts. A private burial will follow in the Richmond Cemetery. Dates and times of the services will be announced.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Roy and Sue Kidd Endowed Scholarship at EKU.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.
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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Roy Kidd obituary: EKU legend, college football hall of fame coach
