Enshrined: Hines Left an Impression in Fort Collins
Love for the city brought him back to Colorado State
Mike Brohard
If you met Kenny Hines, you had somebody who was always in your corner.
It’s how Johnny Square, team chaplain for both the Colorado State football and men’s basketball teams, remembers Hines. A man quick to greet you with a handshake and a smile, ready to cover the distance between since the last meeting.
“Kenny would do that for you. He was positive and he would check in on you, see how you were doing,” Square said of Hines, who passed away this past spring. “It was, ‘how you are doing Johnny?’ and he’d tell you a bit about him. He knew everything about Fort Collins. He loved Fort Collins and gave back.
“The thing about Kenny was he was involved in everything. This guy knew the mayor. He knew the people on the city council. He knew people at the university. There’s weren’t too many people who didn’t know Kenny. We would see each other and just sit down and talk. If you met Kenny, you became a friend.”
Hines, a standout in football and wrestling from 1962-1964, will join the Colorado State Athletics Hall of Fame this weekend. The class will be inducted Oct. 11, part of the Ram Good Time Gala and the Ram Good Time Weekend. The Gala, which will also include the Ram Good Time Auction, begins at 5 p.m., with registration currently open for the event. The following day, the inductees will take part in the Ram Legends tailgate with President Amy Parsons and Director of Athletics John Weber before being introduced to the Canvas Stadium crowd as the football team hosts San Jose State (1:30 p.m. kickoff).
He was only African American wrestler at the school to earn All-American honors, placing fifth at 191 pounds at the 1963 NCAA Championships. That same school year, he led the football team in rushing, scoring and total offense.
After a brief professional football career and a few moves to parts of the country, he returned to call Fort Collins home, working for decades as a safety coordinator in the veterinary department.
It was where his sister, Rayjo Farris, said he was happy.
“At his job at CSU, people always told us he did a fabulous job in that department. He did love Fort Collins,” she said. “We couldn’t get him to move away after he moved back. And he loved CSU.
“He was a go-getter. He was always into sports. He lived by a golf course in Fort Collins, and his ashes were spread there.”
He was always available to help people. He loved people. He made sure that he loved people.Rayjo Farris
Theirs was a large family, Rajo in the middle of nine children. Kenny was just a year older, and while she agrees with Square, he was always quick to make friends and help others, as a brother, well, he could be a bit mischievous.
Sometimes to her chagrin, but she always knew it came from the heart.
“He was a pest as a brother. He is a year older than me, but he was a pest and always picking on my children. He loved to do that,” she said. “I know it was a way of love, but he did it all the time. He was loveable, and since we were only a year apart, so many people thought I was his brother because of the spelling of my name. He would crack up and actually fall on the floor laughing about people asking about his brother, and he’d say no, that’s my sister.
“He was always available to help people. He loved people. He made sure that he loved people. His friend Adele told me that sometimes John Amos would stay at his house when he was coming through Fort Collins. He loved to help people, and that was his brightest light.”
Square knows firsthand. When he and his wife were expecting their first child around the holidays, the thought of cooking made her ill. It was Hines who taught Square how to cook a turkey – among a host of other things through the years.
When he returned, he was still an ardent supporter of the team. Square remembers him holding an unofficial role under former coach Sark Arslanian, helping players in the weight room and on the field. If you were a freshman making the adjustment, Square said you could expect a visit from Hines as a way of a pick-me-up.
“Kenny cared about the athletes,” Square said. “He cared about everyone.”
Which is why Farris feels she’s not alone in being touched by the induction. It means the world to her family. She firmly believes it means just as much to all the friends he made over the years.
Too many to count, Square would tell you.
“His induction means a lot to me. I means he went out achieved the things he set out to do,” Farris said. “I think he was even more proud of his time as a student. He didn’t play football that long, maybe six to eight years, then he went back to school.”
Support Colorado State Athletics: Tickets | Ram Club | Green And Gold Guard