Following is a list of notable Eastern Kentucky University alumni.
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Josh Anderson | Non-degreed | Professional baseball player | [1] [2] | |
Richie Bancells | 1981 | M.S. sports science | Head Athletic Trainer for the Baltimore Orioles | [3] [4] |
Yeremiah Bell | 2002 | Professional football player with Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals | [5] [6] | |
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee | 1999 | M.S. sports administration | Head coach for Boston College Eagles women's basketball | [7] |
Steve Bird | 1983 | Professional football player and football special teams coordinator for South Carolina State | [8] | |
Elmo Boyd | Professional football player with the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers | [9] | ||
Chad Bratzke | 1994 | Professional football player with the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts | [10] | |
Wally Chambers | 1973 | Professional football player with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 1973 Defensive NFL Rookie of the Year Award | [11] | |
Al Clark | Professional baseball umpire | [12] | ||
Earle Combs | 1919 | Education | Professional baseball player with the New York Yankees, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame | [13] |
Danny Copeland | 1989 | Professional footaball player with the Washington Redskins and Super Bowl XXVI champions | [14] [15] | |
Dale Dawson | Professional football player with the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and Green Bay Packers | [16] | ||
Jessamyn Duke | Professional mixed martial artist formally for the UFC | [17] | ||
Jason Dunn | 1995 | Professional football player with the Kansas City Chiefs | [18] | |
Matt Figger | 1995 | College basketball coach | [19] | |
Charlie Fisher | M.S. | College football coach | [20] | |
George Floyd | 1982 | Profesesional football player with the New York Jets and member of the College Football Hall of Fame | [21] | |
Christian Friedrich | 2008 | Professional baseball player with the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres | [22] | |
Simon B. Gray | M.S. sports administration | Athletic director of Niagara University | ||
Myron Guyton | 1989 | Professional football player with the New York Giants and New England Patriots | [23] [24] | |
Ole Hesselbjerg | 2015 | Physics | Runner who competed in the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2016 Summer Olympics for Denmark | [25] |
Sam Holbrook | Major League Baseball umpire | [26] | ||
Chris Isaac | 1981 | Professional gridiron football player with the Canadian Football League | ||
John Jackson | 1988 | Professional football player with the Pittsburgh Steelers | [27] | |
Aaron Jones | 1988 | Professional football player with the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, and Miami Dolphins | [28] | |
Roy Kidd | 1955 | College football coach and member of the College Football Hall of Fame | [29] | |
W. H. Lyon | College football coach | |||
Antwaun Molden | 2008 | Professional football player with the Houston Texans | ||
Mark Montgomery | 1992 | College softball head coach | [30] | |
Tom Riginos | 1993 | M.A. physical education and sports administration | Head baseball coach of the Winthrop Eagles | [31] |
Chrissy Roberts | 1998 | College basketball coach | [32] | |
Dallas Robinson | 2006 | Bobsledder in the 2014 Winter Olympics | [33] | |
Michael Scot | M.A. physical education | Director of the New South Wales Institute of Sport and chief executive officer of Sport New Zealand | ||
Garfield Smith | 1968 | Professional basketball player with the Boston Celtics and the San Diego Conquistadors | [34] | |
Steve Smith | M.S. | Head basketball coach at Oak Hill Academy | ||
Teddy Taylor (football) | College football coach and two-time All-American college football player | [35] | ||
Corey Walden | 2015 | Professional basketball player, 2019 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP | [36] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Don McNay | 1981 | Journalism and political science | Chartered financial consultant, financial author, and The Huffington Post contributor | [37] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lori Stewart Gonzalez | Communication disorders | 23rd President of Ohio University | [38] | |
Kishonna Gray | 2005, 2007 | Criminal justice, M.S. justice studies | Researcher in communication and gender studies at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences | |
Teresa W. Haynes | 1975, 1978, 1984 | B.S. and M.A. mathematics and education, M.S. mathematics | Professor of mathematics and statistics at East Tennessee State University known for her research in graph theory | |
Don Showalter | 1964 | Chemistry and math | Professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point | [39] |
Aaron Thompson | 1978 | Political science and sociology | President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education | [40] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chuckie Campbell | 2007 | M.A. English literature and creative writing | Rapper, poet, and author | [41] |
Sam Champion | 1983 | Broadcast news | Weather editor and anchor for Good Morning America and ABC News | [42] |
Mallory Ervin | Political science | Miss Kentucky 2009 and The Amazing Race contestant | ||
Faith Esham | Non-degreed | M.S. clinical psychology | Opera singer | [43] |
Carl Hurley | 1966 | B.S. and M.A. education | Comedian and motivational speaker; former EKU professor | [44] |
Laura Kirkpatrick | Non-degreed | Art | America's Next Top Model cycle 13 runner up | [45] |
Homer Ledford | 1954 | Bluegrass musician and maker of dulcimers | [46] | |
Lee Majors | 1962 | History and physical education | Actor known for Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy | [47] |
Mike Morgan | 1970 | Education | Singer-songwriter and record producer | [48] |
Dan Patrick | Non-degreed | Co-host of ESPN's SportsCenter | [49] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tom Colbert | 1976 | M.A. | Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court | [50] |
Pleas Jones | Education | Associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals (subsequently renamed the Kentucky Supreme Court) | ||
James E. Keller | 1966 | Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court | [51] | |
Debra H. Lambert | 1983 | Associate justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court and former Judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals | [52] | |
Danny C. Reeves | 1978 | Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky | [53] | |
Gregory N. Stivers | 1982 | Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky | [54] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gwenda Bond | Journalism | Novelist | [55] | |
Silas House | English | Novelist | [56] | |
John Samples | 1978 | Political science and government | Author, political theorist, and vice president of the Cato Institute | [57] |
Crystal Wilkinson | 1985 | Journalist | Writer, poet, educator, and winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence | [58] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ken Keen | 1974 | Mathematics | Lt. General and Military Deputy Commander of United States Southern Command | [59] |
Jeffrey H. Norwitz | 1974 | Law enforcement | Counter-terrorism and law enforcement officer with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and John Nicholas Brown Chair of Counterterrorism at the Naval War College | [60] |
Craig E. Williams | Philosophy | Vietnam War Army veteran and co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation | [61] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Eula Bingham | 1951 | Chemistry and biology | Occupational health scientist | [94] |
Ranthony Edmonds | 2013 | M.S. mathematical sciences | Mathematician specializing in commutative ring theory, factorization theory, and applied algebraic topology | [95] |
Name | Class | Major | Notability | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Andrew C. Thornton II | 1971 | Law enforcment | Head of "The Company" drug smuggling ring | [96] |
Eastern Kentucky University is a public university in Richmond, Kentucky. It also maintains branch campuses in Corbin, Hazard, Lancaster, and Manchester and offers over 40 online undergraduate and graduate options.
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Roy Lee Kidd was an American collegiate football league player and coach. He served as the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 1964 to 2002, compiling a record of 314–124–8. Kidd's Eastern Kentucky Colonels won NCAA Division I-AA Football Championships in 1979 and 1982 and were runners-up in 1980 and 1981. His 314 career victories are second-most in NCAA Division I-AA/FCS history, trailing only those of Grambling State's Eddie Robinson. Kidd was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2003.
John Jackson is a former American football offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Best known for his time as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jackson was drafted in 1988 out of Eastern Kentucky University in the tenth round. While at EKU, Jackson was a three-year starter and a two-time All-OVC selection under head coach Roy Kidd. While he was at EKU, the Colonels won three OVC titles and he blocked for two of the top five career rushers in EKU history, Elroy Harris and James Crawford.
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels men's basketball team is a college basketball team at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), located in Richmond, Kentucky, United States. The Colonels are members of the ASUN Conference, which they joined in 2021 after having been members of the Ohio Valley Conference since that league's founding in 1948. Home games are played at Alumni Coliseum, located on EKU's campus. The team last played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2014. The Colonels are coached by A.W. Hamilton, who came to EKU in 2018 after previous head coach Dan McHale was fired after 3 seasons.
Michael Taft Benson is an American academic administrator serving as the president and professor of history at Coastal Carolina University. He previously served as president of Eastern Kentucky University, Southern Utah University, and Snow College, and as special assistant to the president at University of Utah. He was appointed Visiting Professor within the Department of the History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University in January 2020.
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), located in Richmond, Kentucky, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the ASUN Conference since the 2021–22 academic year. Its football team competes in the United Athletic Conference (UAC), which starts play in 2023 as a football-only merger of the ASUN and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The Colonels previously competed in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) from 1948–49 to 2020–21.
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Chrissie Roberts is an American college basketball coach and the former women's head coach at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky.
Steven L. Bird is an American football special teams coordinator for South Carolina State. He played college football for Eastern Kentucky where he was named to the First-Team All-OVC and won two Division I-AA national championship games in 1979 and 1982. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He also played for the San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Cincinnati Bengals and the Edmonton Eskimos and Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
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The 1967 Grantland Rice Bowl was an NCAA College Division game following the 1967 season, between the Eastern Kentucky Colonels and the Ball State Cardinals. Eastern Kentucky quarterback Jim Guice was named the game's most outstanding player.
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels women's basketball team is a women's college basketball team at Eastern Kentucky University, located in Richmond, Kentucky. After having played women's basketball in the Ohio Valley Conference since it began sponsoring women's sports in 1977, EKU joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in July 2021. The 2024–25 season will mark EKU's fourth season as a member institution in the ASUN Conference. Home games are played at Baptist Health Arena, seating 6,500 fans for basketball contests.
Archibald William Hamilton is an American basketball coach and former player. He is the head men's basketball coach at Eastern Kentucky University, a position he has held since 2018. Hamilton served as the head basketball coach at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, from 2011 to 2017. Born in Georgetown, Kentucky, he played college basketball for Wake Forest and Marshall, where he graduated in 2005.
Charles Talton "Turkey" Hughes was an American college football, basketball and baseball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 1929 to 1934. The baseball field at Eastern Kentucky, Turkey Hughes Field, is named in his honor.
Mark Elder is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 2016 until 2019. Prior to his tenure at Eastern Kentucky, Elder was an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee.
Ted Hotaling is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at the University of New Haven (2010–present).