Legendary Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) football coach Roy Kidd died Tuesday at the age of 91, the school’s athletic department said in a media release.
Kidd helmed the program from 1964 until 2002. He amassed 314 wins with the Colonels, making him No. 10 in all-time wins among NCAA coaches and earning him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame. The impressive tally landed Kidd right below hallowed Alabama coach Bear Bryant, who won just nine more games, Athlon Sports reported in 2019.
EKU Football mourns the loss of iconic head coach Roy Kidd.
It would be impossible to express everything Coach Kidd has meant to Eastern Kentucky University. He embodied the passion, purpose, and pride that our program strives for every day. Thank you, Coach Kidd! 🤍🏈 pic.twitter.com/mhm4VXYRpQ
— EKU Football (@EKUFootball) September 12, 2023
Kidd led Eastern Kentucky to two NCAA I-AA (now FCS) championships on his way to a Hall of Fame career. But it is perhaps Kidd’s impact off the field that his former players and opponents felt the most. (RELATED: LSU Fans Call For Brian Kelly’s Firing After Outright Humiliating Loss To Florida State)
Kidd “had the knack of finding someone who may be a little smaller or slower and develop them. He just made us all believe,” said Tuck Woolum, quarterback on Kidd’s 1981 championship-winning team, according to EKU’s media release. “We weren’t the most talented team, especially in 1982, but we believed we were the best team ever.”
“By the time Roy Kidd retired in 2002, he had made me a better football coach and left football a better game,” said Jack Harbaugh, father of Super Bowl-winning coaches Jim and John Harbaugh, and rival coach to Kidd as head of the Western Kentucky University football team from 1989-2002.
Kidd led EKU’s football program to 25 consecutive winning seasons while coaching 55 All-Americans. Forty-one of Kidd’s players ended up signing contracts to play in the NFL, according to the media release.
Kidd was so beloved that EKU, which elected him to its own Hall of Fame in 2006, named its football stadium after him.