Barry Hinson, associate athletic director of Oklahoma State University was the guest speaker of the Kingfisher Rotary club last Tuesday, touching on a variety of subjects that ranged from political division that is now in the news following the assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, to the outstanding sports facilities and programs at OSU.

Hinson is a motivational speaker and travels the state and beyond for speaking engagements. He was the featured speaker of the Kingfisher Chamber of Commerce banquet four years ago.

At 64 years of age, he said that men in his family haven’t historically lived past 82 years, so he said his mission was to take his message of Christian morality, teamwork and patriotic unity to as many young people as possible in the coming years.

The son of a Southern Baptist minister and raised in Marlow, Hinson said the focus of our nation should be on education of our youth. He noted that Oklahoma scored next to last in the nation on overall education testing, and he felt that addressing education issues should be the highest priority of our state’s elected leaders.

He also addressed the six Kingfisher High School seniors who were guests of the club and told them that their politics should not be to a Democrat or Republican, but to be an American. He also said they should strive to live a purpose-driven life.

“When I was a coach I constantly stressed teamwork and being a great teammate. I constantly stressed to my players - it’s not about you.” he said.

As director of Name Image and Likeness (NIL) at OSU, he said that “donors have stepped up” and the school “has as much as most others” in terms of money to offer athletes in today’s pay-for-play competitive world of college athletics.

He said that the OSU golf course, baseball and football stadiums, equestrian facilities and basketball arena were among the finest in the nation.

He added that OSU had 54 national championships in athletics, which ranks sixth best all-time among Division I schools.

He said the football program had a rough season last year, with a rocky start to this season, but he encouraged OSU supporters to not give up on the team or head coach Mike Gundy.

In closing, Hinson noted that the OSU men’s basketball program has players from Iran and Israel on the team, and they “get along just fine.”

He then directed his attention again to the high school senior guests and repeated again that even though Iran and Israel are bitter enemies as nations that the players on the team had bought into the theme that it isn’t about them. But it is about the team.