Corbin’s own Coach Roy Kidd passes away at age 91

Roy Kidd during his days as a Corbin Redhound

Nearly a week after being placed in hospice care, it was announced Tuesday morning that legendary football coach and Corbin native, Roy Kidd, has passed away at the age of 91.

“College football has lost one of its all-time legends, and Eastern Kentucky University one of its most beloved and accomplished sons,” said a press release sent out by EKU Tuesday.

Kidd was the head football at Eastern from 1964 to 2002, where he led his alma mater to two national I-AA championships and two runner-up finishes, 16 Ohio Valley Conference titles and 314 wins, earning induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Kidd was a three-sport star athlete at Corbin High School, playing basketball, baseball and football for the Redhounds in the late 1940s. In his book, The Boys From Corbin, author Gary P. West said, “Roy Kidd was for sure a Cor bin High School sports legend. When the Redhounds had that incredible run of six straight state basketball tournaments, Kidd played in three of them, starting at guard.”

“Even though he became better known as the ultra-successful Hall of Fame football coach at Eastern Kentucky University, he honed his skills in basketball, baseball and football in Corbin in the middle-to-late 40s,” West also wrote in his book.

Kidd went on to a standout career at EKU, where he was a record-setting Little All-American quarterback for the football team and a stalwart center fielder who exceeded .300 in each of his baseball seasons. After one year as assistant basketball and head baseball coach at Madison Central High School in Richmond, Coach Kidd moved across town and led the Madison-Model high school football team to a 54-11-1 mark from 1956 to 1961.

After a year as an assistant football coach at Morehead State University, he returned to EKU, where he served one year as an assistant football coach before beginning a 39-year reign of consistent excellence that few in the history of the sport have matched. In addition to a sterling record of 315-124-8 and two I-AA national titles (1979 and 1982) that book-ended runner-up finishes, Coach Kidd led the Colonels to 25 consecutive winning seasons and 17 NCAA I-AA playoff appearances, twice winning NCAA Division I-AA National Coach of the Year honors. He coached 55 All-Americans, and 41 of his players went on to sign NFL contracts. In January 2023, he received the American Football Coaches Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, which honors those “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.”

Ever and fiercely loyal to his alma mater, Coach Kidd worked part time for the EKU Development Office after retirement, continuing to rally support for an institution he dearly loved. His pride in Eastern was always palpable. “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,” Coach Kidd once said. “My job was to win games and to make our players good people when they go out in the world.”

Bearing testimony to Coach Kidd’s immeasurable impact on the university and the lives of so many student-athletes, the EKU football stadium is named Roy Kidd Stadium in his honor; the street in front of the stadium was renamed Roy and Sue Kidd Way; and a statue of the legendary coach and a wall honoring players, staff and managers is located in the north end zone.

In August 2000, Center Street in downtown Corbin was renamed to Roy Kidd Avenue in the former Redhound’s honor.

Coach Kidd is also a member of the EKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the EKU Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, the OVC Hall of Fame and the Madison County Sports Hall of Fame. Additionally, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s highest football award, given to the best high school football player in the state each season, is named the Roy Kidd Award, and the Roy Kidd OVC Coach of the Year Award is presented annually.

Coach Kidd was born in Corbin on December 4, 1931. He was the youngest of seven and the third son of Edd and Pearl Bradford Kidd. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Susan ‘Sue’ Purcell Kidd; their three children, Marc Kidd (Amy Luyster) of Plano, Texas, Kathy Kuhl (Lewis) of Miami, Florida, and Keith Kidd (Laura Estepp), Richmond, Kentucky; six grandchildren, Seth Kidd (Mehgan), Evan Kuhl (Ana), Samantha Kidd Shelton (Tyler), Nicholas Kuhl, Kirsten Kuhl and Kody Kidd; and four great-grandchildren, Penelope Kidd, Lucia Kuhl, Otto Shelton and Clementine Kidd along with numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Edd and Pearl; two brothers, Earl Kidd and Ray Kidd and four sisters, Evelyn Kidd Marcum, Mildred Kidd Kist, Margaret Kidd and Edwina ‘Snookie’ Kidd.

Services for Coach Kidd will be held at the EKU Center for the Arts with Bill Fort officiating. A private burial will follow in the Richmond Cemetery. Dates and times of the services will be announced.

In lieu of flowers the family ask that donations be made in his honor to the Roy and Sue Kidd Endowed Scholarship at Eastern Kentucky University. Checks can be mailed to the EKU Foundation, CPO 19, 521 Lancaster Ave, Richmond, KY 40475. Online gifts can be made at go.eku.edu/Give-Kidd.