Hall of Fame
Kirksey was a four-year letterman and three-year starter for coach Roy Kidd’s Colonel football team from 1969-72 where he played wide receiver. His best season was his senior year when he caught 32 passes for 502 yards. Following his graduation from Eastern in 1974, he began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Miami University for three seasons. From 1977-81, he coached wide receivers and tight ends at Kentucky, the same post he held the following year with Kansas. In 1983 he was head coach at Kentucky State University before returning to the Southeastern Conference at Florida from 1984-88 as running backs coach. Other collegiate coaching stints for this inductee included Pittsburgh (1989), Alabama (1990-93), Texas A&M (2000) and Middle Tennessee (2006). In 1994, he began his NFL career as wide receivers coach for the San Francisco 49’ers, coaching the NFL’s all-time reception and receiving yards leader, Jerry Rice. Under his tutelage, Rice set an NFL record with 1,848 receiving yards and had a career-high 122 receptions in 1995. San Francisco’s receivers set a Super Bowl record in Super Bowl XXIX with six touchdown catches, including three by Rice. In his stint at Alabama, he helped lead the Crimson Tide to a national championship in 1992. He is a former NFL coach with 17 years experience in the League with stints with the 49’ers, the Lions, the Jaguars, the Broncos and most recently, a seven-year stint with the Houston Texans. In these seven seasons, Andre Johnson averaged an NFL-best 93.6 yards per game, led the league in receiving yards in 2008 and 2009 and led the NFL in receptions in 2008. He was out of coaching in 2005 while serving as deputy executive director of the Kentucky Sports Authority before returning to coaching in 2006 as assistant head coach at Middle Tennessee, helping lead them to the Sun Belt Conference crown.
