One of Kingfisher’s most beloved basketball coaches will soon receive one of the state’s highest honors in the sport.

Carl Nick has been selected for induction into the Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame this summer.

His induction will take place during a banquet at noon Saturday, June 3, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Edmond.

The ceremony is a part of the OBCA’s annual all-star games, which will be held later that day at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Nick’s 15-year stint as a head coach began at Kingfisher in 1963-64.

He coached here until the 1970 season and took that last Yellowjackets team to the Class 2A state tournament.

That squad reached the semifinals by defeating Marlow 48-45, then lost 60-51 to Fort Towson.

It was a steady build to get the Yellowjackets to that point, said one of the best players during Nick’s tenure here.

“The Kingfisher boys’ basketball program was horrible before he arrived,” noted Randy Mecklenburg, who earned All-State status during his 1969 senior season under Nick.

“The year before he got here, we won one game.”

Mecklenburg was a part of that build.

KHS was 53-18 during his sophomore, junior and senior years. The Jackets were 39-8 those last two years.

“Before he got here, we couldn’t win a county tournament. By the time he left, we were county and conference champs,” said Mecklenburg, noting the run to the 2A semis in Nick’s final season.

“That doesn’t sound great by today’s standards, but the turnaround was incredible,” Mecklenburg said. “KHS boys basketball just kept getting better after that.

“His girls’ teams were very successful, too.”

Among the girls he coached was Randy’s future wife, Linda Simpson.

Nick was 120-48 coaching boys at KHS. He left here and had stints at El Reno and Mustang, taking both to the state tournament.

His career mark coaching boys teams was 251-120.

He got out of coaching in 1978 to go into private business, including owning a publishing company with Mecklenburg.

However, Nick also coached girls basketball at Casady, was the athletic director at Edmond for five years and even coached the KHS boys for another year in 1993-94.

“He really has never quit coaching,” Mecklenburg said.

That included coaching AAU ball.

“He coached all my boys (and Bryant Reeves) in AAU summer ball,” Mecklenburg noted. “He has worked individually with all my grandkids and most of the boys on the KHS team for the last few years.”

That includes Mecklenburg’s grandson, Maddox Mecklenburg, who was a part of Kingfisher’s Class 4A state championship team in 2021, started on the 2022 team and came back from a torn ACL to help the Yellowjackets reach the 2023 state semifinals.

Nick was honored by former players here when they gathered for a reunion in February 2020, which marked 50 years since he’d left. “People came from all over the country,” Mecklenburg noted. “The banquet room was overflowing. Everyone wanted to see Coach Nick.” Which is quite common, Mecklenburg said. “I have lived in Kingfisher almost my entire life and he was here for six years,” Mecklenburg said. “But when he comes back to Kingfisher, I think he knows more people than me. “He truly cares about people and was an awesome teacher on the court, in the classroom and in life.” Joining Nick in the OBCA Hall of Fame will be Harold Aldridge, Sr., who coached at Moton and Taft; Richard Beck, who won more than 300 games in stints at Deer Creek-Lamont and Fairview; Jeffery Coleman, who coached 28 years at Graham and Idabel, including winning a 2005 state title with the latter; and Kirk Graham, the current Anadarko girls coach who has had stints at Wynnewood, Carnegie and Watonga and has served as OBCA president.