Archive for February, 2011

One of The Revolve Tour’s partners is Grand Canyon University—and one of our favorite things about them is that no matter what your passion is, there is a place for you at GCU.  Whether you love fine arts, academics, playing in the Arizona sun, or athletics, GCU is a college option you’ll definitely want to check out. Here’s a story about one of GCU’s star athletes, All American candidate Samantha Murphy.

The greatest women’s basketball player in Grand Canyon University history got her start on the playground, where some of the boys needed to vouch for the girl so that she could play. “I was about five inches taller than they were at that age,” Samantha Murphy recalls. “I had good guy friends who were loyal. They stuck up for me.”

Young Samantha also played volleyball, softball, and touch football, but nothing compared to basketball. She loved the speed of the game, and she was a natural competitor. During her senior year in high school, she once text-messaged the words “NO FEAR” to an opposing coach before a game.

And yet, she’s enough of a homebody that she treasures a game-day tradition begun by her father, who would make scrambled eggs and slip her a note of encouragement. Even now, away from home and in her senior year at GCU, she’s got to have eggs on game day. “To most college kids, she’d probably seem pretty boring,” her dad says.

No one needs to vouch for Samantha anymore. If she’s boring, it’s only because she has made excellence an everyday thing. She is equally student and athlete – a spectacular success at both – and has set a standard that might never be surpassed at Grand Canyon.

A straight-A student with the goal of becoming a physician’s assistant, Samantha became GCU’s all-time leading scorer as a junior. She has won the award for Pacific West Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for two successive years (and considers this award her finest achievement). She has been first team all-conference for three years and is a lock for a fourth.

She has been the leading scorer in NCAA Division II for most of the season.

Samantha is 5-foot-8 now, a grown woman, and she’s still standing taller than everyone else.

Samantha says she couldn’t have done it without her family’s love and support. “My dad is still the best coach I’ve ever had,” she says. “I may have learned a lot by playing with the boys, but he taught me the fundamentals.” She credits her mother with being her anchor. “She keeps me sane throughout the season by reminding me what’s important in life.”

― Doug Carroll

Grand Canyon University is an accredited, non-denominational Christian university that offers both online and campus-based bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs. (They have some amazing athletes, too!) Learn more about what Grand Canyon University has to offer you here.