Researching John Kidd

Kidd was the highest-selected punter in Bills history. They chose him in the fifth round of the 1984 NFL Draft from Northwestern University. He was the starting quarterback and punter at Findlay High School in Findlay, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1980.

Kidd was a first-team All-Big Ten and first-team All American in college and won the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor. He continues to hold the career punting average record for his college alma mater, Northwestern (41.8), where he also holds the single-season average (45.6).

During his 1994–97 tenure with the NFL's Dolphins, he established the career punting average record (44.2) for the franchise that stood until Brandon Fields joined the team in 2007 and surpassed Kidd in 2010. In 1996, Kidd led the NFL with a 46.3 punting average.

Born in Brechin, Forfarshire, Scotland, to boot manufacturer John Kidd and Elizabeth Souter, he received a limited education and was apprenticed at the age of thirteen as a baker and confectioner. In 1857 he arrived in New South Wales and became a baker in Sydney, with his bakery becoming a general store by 1876. In November 1860 he married Sophie Collier at Aberdeen, with whom he had three children. He visited the United Kingdom in 1877 and had a cattle property near Campbelltown.

In 1880 Kidd was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Camden. he served until 1882 and then again from 1885 to 1887, 1889 to 1895, and 1898 to 1904. Kidd was Postmaster-General in the third Dibbs ministry from 1891 until 1894 and Secretary for Mines and Agriculture from 1901 to 1904 in the See ministry. He was a member of the Protectionist Party from 1887 until 1901 when he joined the Progressive Party. He had been a supporter of Federation from 1891.

He was a commissioner for New South Wales for the exhibitions Adelaide in 1887 and Melbourne in 1888.

Kidd died at Campbelltown on .

He was born on 4 November 1947 in Maitland, New South Wales. He was a Corporal in the Australian Army from 22 April 1967 to 21 March 1968 and served in the Vietnam War. He was a probationary constable in the New South Wales Police Force from 1969 to 1982. He became a paraplegic when a truck knocked him off his police motorbike on Concord Road in Sydney in May 1969. Commissioner Norman Allan visited Kidd whilst he was in Prince Henry Hospital and told him he could remain in the police force as long as he wanted to. Kidd worked at several Sydney police stations before transferring to the Lismore Police Station's intelligence area where he assisted in major incidents such as the Murwillumbah bank robbery, the double beach murders at Kingscliff, a couple of other serious murders involving the Mr Asia syndicate. He retired from the police force in 1982 due to ill health. In March 1995, he was awarded the National Medal. He died in Toowoomba, Queensland on 26 February 2016.

At the 1976 Summer Games, he competed in three athletics events and won a silver medal in the Men's Javelin 4 and finished tenth in the Men's Shot Put 4 and fifteenth in the Men's Discus 4. He was also a member of the Australian wheelchair basketball team at the 1976 Toronto Games. Kidd broke Australian Javelin records from 1973 to 1977. He retired from competitive sport when he moved to Lismore, New South Wales.

In an interview in 1980, Kidd said "Before recovering from the accident my favorite sport was drinking beer. Because of the accident I discovered sport and it took me on several trips around the world... I can't complain".