Carlyle Strickland of Decatur played three seasons for the Howard Payne basketball team, earning All-Lone Star Conference guard honors twice. Strickland transferred from Decatur Baptist College to Howard Payne. He was captain of the basketball team as a junior and senior and a member of the Lone Star Conference co-championship team in 1962. His 19.7 points per game average as a senior was the highest scoring average for a guard in Howard Payne history at the time. He ran track as a senior, winning the LSC in low hurdles. Strickland was a second-generation Howard Payne basketball player, following his father, Otis Strickland. His son, Charles Strickland, ran track at Howard Payne in the 1980s. After graduation in 1962, Strickland served as an assistant basketball and track coach. He left Howard Payne to join the Decatur Baptist College business staff and earned a master’s degree from West Texas State and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He died in 1990.