Roy Kidd
Encyclopedia
Roy Kidd is a former American football
player and coach. He served as the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University
from 1964 to 2002, compiling a record of 314–124–8. Kidd's Eastern Kentucky Colonels
won NCAA Division I-AA Football Championships in 1979 and 1982 and were runners-up in 1980 and 1981. His 314 career victories are second-most in NCAA Division I-AA/FCS history, trailing only those of Grambling State
's Eddie Robinson. Kidd was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
as a coach in 2003.
, and baseball
player at Corbin High School in the Whitley County
portion of Corbin, Kentucky
. At Corbin, Kidd was a basketball teammate of college All-American Frank Selvy. There is currently a street, Roy Kidd Ave., named in his honor in Corbin. He graduated from Corbin
in 1950 after being chosen as a first team All-State football player for the 1949 season by the Louisville Courier-Journal. Kidd was signed to a football scholarship by Eastern Kentucky State College
and played quarterback
at the Richmond
school from 1950 to 1953. Kidd actually turned down a scholarship to play for Bear Bryant
at the University of Kentucky
because his favorite sport was baseball and the football coaches at Eastern Kentucky were willing to let him play both sports. Kidd received four varsity letter
s in football and baseball at Eastern. He established a dozen records as quarterback of the Maroons (each of these has since been tied or broken), was an All-Ohio Valley Conference
selection, and was honored as a "Little All-American" choice in 1953. Kidd was also a star center fielder
for Eastern, bettering the .300 mark four consecutive seasons. Kidd served as a student assistant on the staff of Glenn Presnell
's 1954 Eastern team which went undefeated, won the OVC and lost 7–6 to Omaha
in the Tangerine Bowl
.
in Richmond, Kentucky
. In August 1956, A. L. Lassiter, the superintendent of Richmond city schools, offered Kidd the position of head football coach at Madison-Model High School
. Kidd accepted and spent the next six years as coach of the Royal Purples. Model
discontinued its partnership with Madison after the 1960–61 school year and Kidd coached Madison
for one season, 1961–62 school year, before moving to the college level.
Kidd took over a Madison-Model program that produced a 23–36–12 record from 1947 to 1955. He led the Purples to a 54–11–1 record from 1956 to 1961. His 54 wins rank him as the third winningest coach in Madison football history behind Lassiter (86 wins in 20 years) and Monty Joe Lovell (77 wins in 11 years). Kidd's .818 winning percentage is the best in Richmond Madison football history. 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 (1959–1961) and was 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 Fort Thomas
' Highlands High School that season as Kidd's squad fell to the Bluebirds 12–0. Future college 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 and served under his mentor, Glenn Presnell
. After the 1963 season, Presnell retired and Kidd was hired as Eastern's head football coach 1964.
In 1967, Kidd led the Colonels to the first of 16 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 finishing as runner-up in 1980 and 1981. Following the national championships, Kidd's teams never suffered a losing campaign. He led the school to 18 playoff appearances, including a stretch of making the postseason in 16 out of 17 seasons. All told, Kidd led the Colonels to 16 Ohio Valley Conference titles and a national record 17 NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances. He won the OVC Coach of the Year honor ten times and was twice honored as the NCAA Division I-AA national coach of the year.
Over the course of his career, Kidd had a record of 314–124–8, a .713 winning percentage. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003. At retirement, Kidd was the sixth all-time winningest coach in NCAA history with 314 victories. He recorded 37 non-losing seasons, including a streak of 25 straight seasons with a winning record. Kidd coached 55 All-Americans, 202 First Team All-OVC selections and 41 student-athletes who signed National Football League contracts. A member of the OVC and Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame, the Colonels' stadium was named Roy Kidd Stadium
in his honor. The street that fronts the stadium has been renamed "Roy and Sue Kidd Way" in honor of Kidd and his wife, Susan Purcell Kidd.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and coach. He served as the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University, commonly referred to as Eastern or by the acronym EKU by local residents, is an undergraduate and graduate teaching and research institution located in Richmond, Kentucky, U.S.A.. EKU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
from 1964 to 2002, compiling a record of 314–124–8. Kidd's Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Eastern Kentucky Colonels football
The Eastern Kentucky University Colonels football team is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision...
won NCAA Division I-AA Football Championships in 1979 and 1982 and were runners-up in 1980 and 1981. His 314 career victories are second-most in NCAA Division I-AA/FCS history, trailing only those of Grambling State
Grambling State Tigers football
The Grambling State Tigers are the college football team representing the Grambling State University. The Tigers play in NCAA Division I Football Championship as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.-Black College Football National Championships:...
's Eddie Robinson. Kidd was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
as a coach in 2003.
Early life and playing career
Kidd was a star football, basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player at Corbin High School in the Whitley County
Whitley County, Kentucky
Whitley County is a county located in the state of Kentucky. 2005 census projections list its population at 38,029 . The county seat is at Williamsburg, though the largest city is Corbin, and the county's District Court sits in both cities...
portion of Corbin, Kentucky
Corbin, Kentucky
- Economy :Originally formed by L&N Railroad, rail transport was the backbone of the local economy in the first half of the twentieth century. While the railroad continues to play an important role, the decline of the rail industry in the latter half of the twentieth century, as well as the loss...
. At Corbin, Kidd was a basketball teammate of college All-American Frank Selvy. There is currently a street, Roy Kidd Ave., named in his honor in Corbin. He graduated from Corbin
Corbin, Kentucky
- Economy :Originally formed by L&N Railroad, rail transport was the backbone of the local economy in the first half of the twentieth century. While the railroad continues to play an important role, the decline of the rail industry in the latter half of the twentieth century, as well as the loss...
in 1950 after being chosen as a first team All-State football player for the 1949 season by the Louisville Courier-Journal. Kidd was signed to a football scholarship by Eastern Kentucky State College
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University, commonly referred to as Eastern or by the acronym EKU by local residents, is an undergraduate and graduate teaching and research institution located in Richmond, Kentucky, U.S.A.. EKU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
and played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
at the Richmond
Richmond, Kentucky
There were 10,795 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.2% were married couples living together, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.6% were non-families. Of all households, 34.7% were made up of individuals and 8.8% had...
school from 1950 to 1953. Kidd actually turned down a scholarship to play for Bear Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
because his favorite sport was baseball and the football coaches at Eastern Kentucky were willing to let him play both sports. Kidd received four varsity letter
Varsity letter
A varsity letter is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its winner was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met.- Description :...
s in football and baseball at Eastern. He established a dozen records as quarterback of the Maroons (each of these has since been tied or broken), was an All-Ohio Valley Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision , the lower of two levels of Division I...
selection, and was honored as a "Little All-American" choice in 1953. Kidd was also a star center fielder
Center fielder
A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball fielding position between left field and right field...
for Eastern, bettering the .300 mark four consecutive seasons. Kidd served as a student assistant on the staff of Glenn Presnell
Glenn Presnell
Glenn Emery "Press" Presnell was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He set the NFL single-season scoring record in 1933 and led the league in total offense. He was the last surviving member of the Detroit Lions inaugural 1934 team and helped lead the team to...
's 1954 Eastern team which went undefeated, won the OVC and lost 7–6 to Omaha
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The University of Nebraska at Omaha is a four-year state university located in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Founded in 1908 as Omaha University, the institution became the public Municipal University of Omaha in 1931. It assumed its current name in 1968 following a merger into the University...
in the Tangerine Bowl
Capital One Bowl
The Capital One Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Orlando, Florida at the Citrus Bowl, and previously known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl...
.
Madison-Model
In 1955, Kidd was hired as the assistant basketball and head baseball coach at Madison Central High SchoolMadison Central High School (Kentucky)
Madison Central High School is a public high school located in Richmond, Kentucky. Its school mascot is the Native American. The original Central High School was built in 1938 and was one of several small high schools that were part of the Madison County school system...
in Richmond, Kentucky
Richmond, Kentucky
There were 10,795 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.2% were married couples living together, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.6% were non-families. Of all households, 34.7% were made up of individuals and 8.8% had...
. In August 1956, A. L. Lassiter, the superintendent of Richmond city schools, offered Kidd the position of head football coach at Madison-Model High School
Madison-Model High School
Madison-Model High School was a secondary school located in Richmond, Kentucky.From 1936-1961, a unique relationship was formed with Eastern Kentucky State College's Model Laboratory School and Richmond, Kentucky's public high school, Madison. This was accomplished through the efforts of then...
. Kidd accepted and spent the next six years as coach of the Royal Purples. Model
Model Laboratory School
Model Laboratory School is a semi-private laboratory school located on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, in Richmond, Kentucky, United States....
discontinued its partnership with Madison after the 1960–61 school year and Kidd coached Madison
Madison High School (Richmond, Kentucky)
Madison High School was an independent city high school in Richmond, Kentucky . The school's enrollment never exceeded 400 and it never graduated a class of more than 85 students in its 70 year existence...
for one season, 1961–62 school year, before moving to the college level.
Kidd took over a Madison-Model program that produced a 23–36–12 record from 1947 to 1955. He led the Purples to a 54–11–1 record from 1956 to 1961. His 54 wins rank him as the third winningest coach in Madison football history behind Lassiter (86 wins in 20 years) and Monty Joe Lovell (77 wins in 11 years). Kidd's .818 winning percentage is the best in Richmond Madison football history. 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 (1959–1961) and was 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 Fort Thomas
Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Fort Thomas is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, on the southern bank of the Ohio River and the site of an 1890 US Army post. The population was 16,325 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Campbell County and it is officially part of the Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky metropolitan...
' Highlands High School that season as Kidd's squad fell to the Bluebirds 12–0. Future college and NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
coach, Homer Rice
Homer Rice
Homer Rice was a college athletic director and football coach. From 1967 to 1968, he served as the head football coach at Cincinnati, where he compiled an 8-10-1 record. From 1976 to 1977, he coached at Rice, where he compiled a 4-18 record...
, coached Highlands.
Eastern Kentucky
Morehead State University
Morehead State University is a public, co-educational university located in Morehead, Kentucky, United States in the foothills of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Rowan County, midway between Lexington, Kentucky, and Huntington, West Virginia. The 2012 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S...
. The next year he ventured back to Richmond to serve as an assistant coach at his alma mater and served under his mentor, Glenn Presnell
Glenn Presnell
Glenn Emery "Press" Presnell was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He set the NFL single-season scoring record in 1933 and led the league in total offense. He was the last surviving member of the Detroit Lions inaugural 1934 team and helped lead the team to...
. After the 1963 season, Presnell retired and Kidd was hired as Eastern's head football coach 1964.
In 1967, Kidd led the Colonels to the first of 16 Ohio Valley Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision , the lower of two levels of Division I...
titles during his tenure, as well as a victory in the Grantland Rice Bowl
Grantland Rice Bowl
The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game, one of four regional NCAA college division championships from 1964 to 1972. It was the Mideast Regional championship, played in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1968...
over Ball State
Ball State Cardinals football
The Ball State Cardinals football team represents Ball State University in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football competition as a member of the Mid-American Conference .-Recent history:...
. 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 finishing as runner-up in 1980 and 1981. Following the national championships, Kidd's teams never suffered a losing campaign. He led the school to 18 playoff appearances, including a stretch of making the postseason in 16 out of 17 seasons. All told, Kidd led the Colonels to 16 Ohio Valley Conference titles and a national record 17 NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances. He won the OVC Coach of the Year honor ten times and was twice honored as the NCAA Division I-AA national coach of the year.
Roy Kidd Stadium
Roy Kidd Stadium is Eastern Kentucky University's football stadium in Richmond, Kentucky. The stadium is home to the EKU Colonels football team, located on campus. Currently, Roy Kidd Stadium consists of upper and lower level seating areas with a predominant majority of the seats being metal...
in his honor. The street that fronts the stadium has been renamed "Roy and Sue Kidd Way" in honor of Kidd and his wife, Susan Purcell Kidd.