The 60th-greatest college football coach of all time is a Kentucky icon
When ESPN.com posted its list of the 150 greatest college football coaches in the 150-year history of the sport, Roy Kidd was unaware his name was on it.
The former Eastern Kentucky Colonels head man did not know that ESPN.com’s panel of 150 college football authorities ranked him at No. 60.
“My wife saw (the list) before me,” Kidd said Wednesday via the phone. “She said ‘Did you know about this?’”
Kidd is one of five coaches with Kentucky connections who made ESPN’s 150 greatest coaches list.
Former University of Kentucky (1946-53) head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant — who I believe continued in the sport even after he left UK — is No. 1.
Ex-Murray State (1981-86) head man Frank Beamer — who went on to lead Virginia Tech to enduring football prominence — is No. 45.
Howard Schnellenberger, the former UK player (1952-1955) and assistant coach (1959-1960) who transformed Louisville football from an afterthought into a genuinely major-college program as Cardinals head coach (1985-94), is No. 93.
Former Kentucky player (1949-50) and assistant coach (1951) Charlie McClendon, who won 137 games as LSU coach (1962-1979), is No. 96.
Kidd’s high ranking on the list is notable because he never coached under college football’s brightest lights.
The ESPN.com capsule on Kidd begins “The most remarkable fact about Kidd’s 39-year career wasn’t that he won 314 games, 16 conference titles and two national championships. It’s that he did it all at one school. The former Eastern Kentucky quarterback was hired as his alma mater’s coach in 1964 and never left until his retirement in 2002.”
On Wednesday, I asked Kidd how many chances he had to leave his alma mater. The question yielded some colorful stories.
After Eastern defeated Ball State three straight times from 1967-1970, Kidd said the BSU athletics director sought him out to ask if he would be interested in coming to the Muncie, Ind., school.
“But I didn’t call him,” Kidd said.
Once, Kidd said he and wife Sue were invited to visit Marshall University when the Thundering Herd was seeking a coach.
“I’ll never forget, one of their (search) committee persons said, ‘Why do you want this job?’” Kidd said. “I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t know that I want this job. You called me, I didn’t call you.’”
Another time, Kidd traveled to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to interview for the head coaching job at Army.
“I thought that would be a good school and, certainly, great kids to coach,” Kidd said. “But I thought, ‘Lord, I’ve never been in the Army. I don’t know if I should go to Army or not.’ So that didn’t work out.”
There was only one time, Kidd said, he went into a job interview and was not ambivalent over the thought of leaving EKU. It was with UK after Jerry Claiborne retired as Wildcats head coach in 1989.
Kidd had talked with Kentucky on previous occasions when the Wildcats had head coaching vacancies. “Token interviews,” he called them.
In 1989, he felt he had a genuine shot to become the Kentucky Wildcats coach.
“The one time I really got prepared and went some place I thought I might be interested,” Kidd said of that UK interview. “I outlined everything, guys as assistant coaches I needed. The type of players I needed. I did it all. Then I passed it around to the committee and told them if they wanted to ask me any questions, to feel free.”
Former Kentucky defensive back Talbott Todd, who had played quarterback for Kidd at Madison-Model High School in Richmond, was part of UK’s screening process.
Kidd said Todd called and told him UK had already decided to offer its job to Alabama coach Bill Curry, but it was unclear whether Curry was going to accept — and that Kidd’s strong interview had “shaken up” the search committee.
“(Todd) called me back in a few days and said, ‘Bill Curry took it,” Kidd said. “He said the (committee) had already said, ‘Well, if Bill Curry turns it down, it’s yours.”
Instead of testing himself in the deep coaching waters of the SEC, Kidd stayed at EKU for life.
“I just felt secure here,” Kidd said. “I never did make much money, but the people here were always good to me.”
By staying at Eastern, Kidd reaped benefits money can’t buy.
Not every coach has a football stadium that bears their name.
Not every coach has a larger-than-life statue overlooking the stadium that bears their name.
At EKU, Kidd has both.
This week, ESPN’s panel of college football authorities reminded us that you don’t always have to leave home or climb to the most prestigious level in your field to leave a lasting mark.
Being ranked the 60th-best college football coach ever is pretty strong.
“I’ll take that,” Roy Kidd said.
