DeMarco Murray, Gorman great and NFL record holder, pegged for local hall

Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame induction set for June 5 at Orleans Arena

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Richard Lipski / AP

Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray, center, carries the ball during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md., on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. Murray set the franchise single-season rushing record for the Cowboys on the play.

Fri, Feb 28, 2020 (2:55 p.m.)

DeMarco Murray will go down as one of the best football players to come out of Las Vegas. You can also argue that he deserves credit for starting the Bishop Gorman dynasty.

Long before Murray led the NFL in rushing in 2014 with the Dallas Cowboys or had 63 touchdowns in a celebrated collegiate career at Oklahoma, Murray was an all-state running back at Gorman. And not the Gorman you are thinking of.

When Murray rushed for nearly 2,000 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2006 as a senior, Gorman wasn’t situated in its current location in Summerlin, didn’t have some of the best facilities in the nation and wasn’t winning national championships. Rather, the school was on Maryland Parkway near downtown, had practices on a 60-yard field and lost in the playoffs to Cheyenne each fall.

But Murray thrived at Gorman, bringing coaches from many of the blue blood college programs to the valley in paving the way for Gorman to become a recruiting hotbed. Murray will highlight this year’s Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame class, the group announced today.

Murray, now the running backs coach at Oklahoma, retired from the NFL in 2017 with 7,174 rushing yards, 2,165 receiving yards and 55 touchdowns. He played in three Pro Bowls.

The hall of fame class also includes: Former big leaguer Ryan Ludwick, a Durango High and UNLV product who hit 154 major-league home runs; Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, who, in a public service career of more than 20 years, helped advocate for sports growth, including youth facilities such as Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex, Kellogg-Zaher Sports Park and Darling Tennis Center; UNLV basketball great Glen Gondrezick, who was part of the Rebels’ 1977 Final Four team and had his No. 25 jersey retired by the university; Cimarron-Memorial product Amy Purdy, who became a three-time Paralympic medalist after surviving a bacterial meningitis infection that nearly took her life and took both of her legs below the knee; Shawn Davis, a three-time world champion saddle bronc rider credited with helping bring the Nationals Rodeo to Las Vegas.

The induction is June 5 at the Orleans Arena.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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