By Alicia Hooper, Ram Page Online
After 11 years of hard, dedicated work, winning more than 15 awards and surviving 12 football seasons, Sports Information Director M.L. Stark Hinkle will be leaving ASU Nov. 23.
“I am really going to miss Angelo State University,” Hinkle said. “I will miss the student-athletes the most. My colleagues will be missed greatly too.”
As a sports information director, Hinkle said she provides complete publicity, media relations, marketing and promotion for the intercollegiate athletics department and relation organizations and areas for Angelo State University.
Her duties include preparing and disseminating press releases, preparing athletic media guides, publications, brochures and newsletters, coordinating and promoting personal media relations with local, regional and national media organizations and directing and organizing the press box and other media areas for local and regional events.
Hinkle also travels with athletic teams to coordinate and organize media events. She maintains the Angelo State athletic website, writes features and other articles on the ASU athletic programs, athletes and coaches, and she assists with the organization and completion of various priority events, including athletic foundation luncheons, Hall of Honor induction ceremonies and athletic award banquets.
Aside from her amazing work, many people love M.L. Hinkle.
The question floating around in everyone’s head is, “Why is she leaving?” When asked, she said her husband received a new job in Kansas. “So, we will be moving the family up there.”
“I feared ASU would one day lose M.L., but I just hoped it would come after my own retirement,” said Preston Lewis, director of news and information. “She is the consummate professional in that she knows her job and she does it well, handling not only the tasks that must be done but also spending the extra time to attend to the tasks which should be done for the benefit of the student athletes and the university’s various sports programs. She is the perfect employee to supervise because she requires no supervision.”
Hinkle has won more than 15 College Sports Information Directors of America, or CoSIDA, publication awards at ASU for various sports, including two Best in Nation honors and runner-up honors in women’s basketball in 2002.
She has also been a finalist twice for CoSIDA National Story of the Year honors. She has received more than 10 district writing awards, and she currently serves on the CoSIDA Academic All-American National Committee and on the Don Hansen Football Gazette All-America committee.
Vice President Mike Ryan has worked with Hinkle all of her 11 years. “She is a very effective sports information director for us,” he said. “We have a benefit with Mrs. Hinkle because her husband works with her. When you have the Hinkles, you have a team.”
“I have known M.L. and worked with her since she came to ASU 11 years ago,” Athletic Director Kathleen Brasfield said. “M.L. is very talented. She is creative, has great writing skills and loves the Rams and ’Belles.”
Lewis said, “I think her greatest strength was her devotion to all ASU athletes. She truly loved them and saw her job as promoting their successes, not only in the arena of competition but also in the classroom. If you look at the records, you’ll find that we have had more academic all-Americans during her 11 years on the job than in all previous years of the institution.”
Hinkle and her family came from Missouri, where she served two years as a graduate assistant in sports information at Southwest Missouri and served three years as student assistant sports information director at Northeast Missouri State.
The big move to Texas happened after Hinkle applied for the sports information director job and received it. “The job brought me to ASU,” she said.
Lewis said he is impressed how she handled her job so well, but what was even more impressing was how she balanced her family responsibilities to her husband and her children.
“I don’t know how she has done it,” Brasfield said. “She doesn’t know how to say ‘no’. She and Eric (her husband) have been dedicated members of the Angelo State University athletic family and have worked tirelessly on behalf of our student-athletes. The student-athletes love M.L., and we will all miss her very much.”
Ryan said ASU hates to see her leave. She has done a tremendous job. Her skills can only be acquired through years of experience. M.L. Hinkle will be hard to replace.
“I think all of us who love and appreciate ASU owe her our thanks and gratitude for a job exceptionally well done,” Lewis said.