Roy Kidd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roy Kidd (born December 4, 1931 in Corbin, Kentucky) is a former football coach for the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels. Serving as head coach of the Colonels from 1964 to 2002, Kidd had great success on the gridiron, racking up 314 career victories, making him second on the all-time Division I-AA list behind Eddie Robinson of Grambling State.

Kidd was a star football, basketball, and baseball player at Corbin High School in Whitley County, Kentucky. He graduated from Corbin, Kentucky High School in 1950 after being chosen as a first team All-State football player for the 1949 season. He was signed to a football scholarship by Eastern Kentucky State College and played quarterback there from 1950-53. He was chosen as a Little All-American after the 1953 season.

Kidd began his football coaching career as a graduate assistant at EKSC in 1954. He helped mentor the Maroons to a berth in the Tangerine Bowl that season.

In 1955, Kidd was hired as the assistant basketball and head baseball coach at Madison Central High School in Richmond. In the summer of 1956, A. L. Lassiter approached Kidd. Lassiter, the superintendent of Richmond City Schools, offered Kidd the position of head football coach at Madison-Model High School. He accepted and spent the next six years as coach of the Royal Purples.

Kidd took over a football program that had produced a 23-36-12 record from 1947-55. Amazingly, he led the Purples to a 54-11-1 record (1956-61). His first team (1956) reeled off nine wins to finish the regular season undefeated and collected the most wins of any Madison team since the sport was initiated at the Richmond high school in 1921.

Under his tutelage, Madison-Model put together a 27-game winning streak (1959-61) and were not scored upon in 15 consecutive regular season games during that span. They captured three Central Kentucky Conference (CKC) titles in 1956, 1960 and 1961. The Royal Purples were Recreation Bowl Champions in 1957 and 1961. Madison-Model went 11-0 in 1960, but (under a controversial point system) was not awarded a berth in the state playoffs. Kidd was chosen Kentucky High School Coach of the Year in his last season (1961) as his Purples went 13-1. Madison finished as the Class AA state runner-up to Ft. Thomas Highlands that season as Kidd's squad fell to the Bluebirds 12-0. Future NCAA and NFL coach, Homer Rice, coached Highlands.

In 1962, he was hired as an assistant coach at Morehead State College. The next year he ventured back to Richmond to serve as an assistant coach at his alma mater (Eastern Kentucky State College) and served under his old mentor, Glenn Presnell. After the 1963 season, Presnell retired and Kidd was hired as Eastern's head football coach in 1964.

In 1967, Kidd led the Colonels to the first of sixteen Ohio Valley Conference titles during his tenure, as well as a victory in the Grantland Rice Bowl over Ball State. After being classified in the new Division I-AA in 1978, EKU and Kidd made appearances in four straight national championship games, winning in 1979 and 1982, and losing the two in between. Following the national championships, Kidd would never again coach a Colonel team to a losing record. Coach Kidd led the school to 18 playoff appearances, including a stretch of making the postseason in 16 out of 17 seasons. He won the OVC Coach of the Year honor ten times, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame following his retirement in 2003.

Over the course of his career, Coach Roy Kidd had a record of 314-124-8, a 0.713 winning percentage. When he decided to retire, the University honored him by naming their football stadium "Roy Kidd Stadium".