Coyote track's most decorated athlete to enter Hall of Fame

By Britni Smith, USD Sports Information

09.06.2021

The most decorated athlete in South Dakota track and field history, Stephanie (Gebhart) Murphy, will be inducted to the Henry Heider Coyote Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 10.

Murphy compiled a program-record 21 All-America accolades in her time as a Coyote, 11 as a relay member, seven in the 400 meters and three more in the 200 meters. She’s a two-time national runner-up, earning silver in the 400 indoors as a sophomore and placing second again as a member of the distance medley relay in 2008. She recorded 13 top-five finishes at NCAA championship meets.

“It’s a huge honor, very humbling,” said Murphy. “When you go to do a college sport, sometimes it’s just trying to survive being a student-athlete and everything that entails. I don’t think anyone ever dreams of getting to this and it’s just a huge honor.”

The journey to those Division II Championship meets began with Coyote track and field coach Lucky Huber convincing Murphy, a native of Elkton, South Dakota, to choose Vermillion and the University of South Dakota. To this day, she remains grateful that she did.

“I am so thankful to USD,” said Murphy. “I truly believe one of the best decisions I ever made was going to the University of South Dakota. I cannot imagine how different my life would have been. I had success on the track, that was great, but it was more the relationships I formed. I met my husband there. It just set me up for the rest of my life.

“Lucky always emphasized being a student and then an athlete too, which I think is important. That’s part of the reason why he’s been so successful. The winning part kind of comes second. He always wants you to be a good student, a good mother, a good person, which is so important and I don’t think that you get that everywhere. That’s something that makes the U. pretty special.”

I truly believe one of the best decisions I ever made was going to the University of South Dakota. I cannot imagine how different my life would have been. I had success on the track, that was great, but it was more the relationships I formed.

Stephanie (Gebhart) Murphy

Murphy was the 2005 USTFCCCA North Central Region Athlete of the Year, a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient. She won 13 North Central Conference titles, including seven individually between the 400 meters and 200 meters.

The hardware she collected through her collegiate years could fill many a trophy case, but it’s the friendships she made in Vermillion that matter most to her.

“Track is a thankless sport,” Murphy said. “It doesn’t fill the Dome the same way that a football or basketball team does, so you really rely on your teammates to give you that energy.

“A lot of my 4x400 teammates were my rivals in high school. I never thought I would go on to college and form these great friendships. They truly are my best friends for life. From celebrating the victories to getting yourself through the hard times where you have to push yourself more than you ever thought was possible and it’s your teammates and your coaches that get you through that. Those bonds with your teammates carry on for the rest of your life. It’s pretty special.”

Stephanie Gebhart Murphy and Lucky Huber

A favorite memory of Murphy’s was the 2006 NCAA Division II Championships her junior season. It was a hot afternoon and the meet was winding down in Kansas. The women’s 4x400 relay was racing around the track simultaneous to the men’s pole vault competition where Sam Pribyl was in the midst of winning a national title. The track was electric, filled with excitement and goosebumps. Huber was unsure of which way to turn.

Murphy and her teammates went on to set the South Dakota school record that day, a mark that remains atop the record books 15 years later.

“Steph had this fierce competitiveness to her,” said Huber. “She was not going to get beat, which made her great as an individual, but she was also a great leader with the ability to rally her teammates. She was so fun to coach – she worked so hard, had a great personality and was an amazing young lady.”

She was so fun to coach – she worked so hard, had a great personality and was an amazing young lady.

Lucky Huber, South Dakota Director of Track & Field

More than a decade after her graduation, Murphy and Huber still keep in touch – from the occasional text to grabbing a beer together and catching up. Murphy came back to the opening of the Lillibridge Track Complex in 2016 and returned for Pribyl’s induction to the Hall of Fame in 2017. Huber’s track and field program made the move to NCAA Division I following Murphy’s graduation.

This past spring, things came full circle in a way as Murphy’s USD school record in the 400 meters was broken by Sara Reifenrath, the niece of Murphy’s teammate Meghan Reifenrath.

Murphy and her husband, Jordan, reside in West Fargo, North Dakota, with their two daughters, Emersyn and Veda. She works as a dermatology physician assistant at Sanford and spends her free time back at the track, but these days it’s to watch her daughter follow in her footsteps.

“My oldest daughter is taking a liking to track, which obviously makes her mama’s heart happy,” Murphy said. “She had a pretty successful summer and so I would share pictures with Lucky. I tell him to hang in there, because I would love for her to be a Yote someday and run for him.”