The Eastern Kentucky Colonels are the athletic teams of the Eastern Kentucky University. The University commonly known as the Eastern was founded in the year 1874 as the Central University. In the year 1966, it was officially renamed the Eastern Kentucky University. Between those periods, it was known by different names, including Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, Eastern Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College and Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College. The University is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference and its athletic teams compete in the NCAA Division I.
>> More
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels football team participates in the Division I-AA of the NCAA. The Colonels are a successful football team. They have won a total of 16 Ohio Valley Conference titles and two Division I-AA National Championships (1979 and 1982). The Colonels won their first of the sixteen conference championships in the year 1967, during the tenure of long-time head coach, Roy Kidd. Kidd led the Colonels to all the sixteen Ohio Valley Conference titles and a national record of seventeen NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances. He won the OVC Coach of the Year honor a total of ten times. He was also honored as the NCAA Division I-AA national coach of the year two times.
The Roy Kidd Stadium is home to the Eastern Kentucky Colonels football team. It was inaugurated in the year 1969. The stadium is named after the University's long time head football coach, Roy Kidd who achieved over 300 wins in his career at the university and led the team to two Division I-AA National Championships in the years 1979 and 1982. The stadium has a seating capacity for 22,000 spectators.