Fred Overton

Fred Henry Overton Jr. (November 9, 1938 – October 27, 2019) was a former head basketball coach at Murray State University and a nationwide motivational speaker. He was a former student of Charles Stanley's Luther Rice Seminary.^[1][2]

Overton began his coaching career as an assistant at Austin Peay State University in 1963. In 1969, he moved cross country to coach at Pepperdine University.^[3] In 1971, he returned to the Ohio Valley Conference to serve as assistant to Cal Luther at Murray State University. In 1974, he was elevated to the head coaching position.^[4] Overton served as head coach for four seasons at Murray State, with his best season in 1976–77, when his team posted a 17-10 overall record and finished tied for second in the OVC with a 9-5 record. After the season, he was named OVC Co-Coach of the Year. He resigned at the end of the 1977–78 season because the he had not achieved "the winning success" he had hoped to.^[5] His overall record as Racers head coach was 44–59.^[6]

In 1980, Overton was saved under the preaching of Charles Stanley. During the 1980s, he was in full-time secular sales work, taught adult Sunday School at First Baptist Atlanta and attended Luther Rice Seminary by correspondence. In September 1991, Fred was called into full-time Christian work, teaching his seminar "Is the Bible Reliable?". Since then he developed additional five seminars. His teaching ministry was nationwide.^[7]