College Football Coach. Kidd was the Eastern Kentucky University football coach 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 315 wins, earning induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Kidd was born in Corbin, Kentucky, on December 4, 1931, the youngest of seven children. A three-sport star at Corbin High School, he 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 Eastern, 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." Besides becoming one of the sport's winningest coaches, establishing Eastern as a national football powerhouse and bringing national acclaim to the university, Coach Kidd was revered by his former players as a stern and demanding coach, but also as a thoughtful and compassionate mentor who cared about their personal growth and success, even well beyond their playing days. 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. 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. A street in front of Corbin High School's football stadium is also named in his 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.