Roy Kidd Will Be Remembered For A Lot More Than Just Wins

Eastern Kentucky Athletics Photo

The passing of former Eastern Kentucky coach Roy Kidd at age 91 certainly brought back a lot of memories for me because Kidd won 314 games with the Colonels, including two national titles, and probably deserved a chance to be the head coach at Kentucky when he was passed over twice.

Kidd touched so many lives in so many different ways.

I recently talked to a woman who told me about her husband playing football at Eastern Kentucky for Roy Kidd. Her husband came to EKU from Pennsylvania and didn’t like it. He hitchhiked home and was done with football. Kidd drove to Pennsylvania, found the young man and convinced him to come back to Eastern where he had a successful playing career and eventually became a high school coach and administrator.

Current EKU head coach Walt Wells was on Kidd’s staff when he retired. Wells was not retained by the new coach but Kidd went out of his way to help Wells get a job at rival Western Kentucky and anyone who knew Roy Kidd knew how hard that had to be for him because he was not a WKU lover. But he was loyal to players and coaches and helped Wells.

My long-time friend Jim Tirey is the color analyst on the Eastern Kentucky football broadcasts. We worked together at WLAP and Tirey is a no-filter voice on air that I really like. I also knew how much he cherished working on the EKU Network.

Here’s what he posted on his Facebook page Tuesday about Kidd:

“I would like to pass along my deepest heartfelt sympathies to the family of Coach Roy Kidd and to Colonel Nation as a whole. Coach was EKU to me. It was hard to think of them separately. I didn’t get to interact with Coach as much as I would have liked, but he always had a word of encouragement or was quick to tell me he thought I did a good job when he listened to our broadcasts.

“A short story…This is actually my second stint with the broadcast crew. I was a field reporter in the late 90s as well. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, other than just to wander our sidelines and report my observations. I had one must-do in every game. Interview Coach coming out of the locker room after halftime.

“The first game of the season, I was absolutely a nervous wreck. I mean, it was Roy Kidd! I trailed him as he exited the locker room and muttered something about getting a few comments, and he put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Son, I’m not gonna bite you.’ I calmed down enough to ask two totally asinine questions.

“Afterward, I said, ‘Coach, I’ll get better.’ He replied with, ‘It may help if you come in the locker room with us.’ From that point on, I went right in with the team and he was right.

“Coach, thanks for accepting an inexperienced kid as one of your guys…”

And that is what made Roy Kidd so special to so many and while he will be missed for far more than the 314 wins and two national championships.