First setting foot on the University of Arkansas campus in the late 1960s, Vernon Murphy said he never really considered the history he was making.
"No, I wasn't thinking like that," Murphy said. "I just felt like it was time for blacks and whites to get together. And that was part of my reasoning for going there."
While the magnitude of eventually becoming the first black athlete to graduate from Arkansas wasn't present on his mind at the time, he surely would be remembered for it.
Murphy, who was born and raised in Texarkana, said he received 82 scholarship offers after graduating from Dunbar High School in 1968. Universities like Colorado, Oklahoma, Wichita State and many more came calling for the basketball phenom.
"Oklahoma Sooners sent an airplane down here, picked me up and took me back up there," he said. "When they scouted me, they tried to take me back the same night. I said, 'No, maybe next week or something.' So, they sent a plane the week after."
After ultimately deciding to attend UA, he made the most of his experience there.
As a freshman, Murphy led the Arkansas freshman team in scoring with 24.6 points per game, set the school record with a high game of 40 points and collected 144 rebounds for the year, according to the school website. In 1969, he was named to the All-Conference freshman team.
While at Arkansas, Murphy held multiple scoring and rebounding records, once dropping 39 points in a single game against Missouri-St. Louis and 36 points against Baylor.
Thirty-nine years after his playing career ended, he remains UA's second all-time leader for field goals made in a single game, with 16. He was the Razorbacks leading rebounder in 1971, with 230 rebounds for the season, and he led the team in 1971 with a .824 free throw percentage.
It's safe to say Murphy made his mark on the college, and for the most part, he said he enjoyed his time there. But considering the turbulence of race issues and complications at the time, it obviously wasn't all peaches and roses in Fayetteville.
He told stories of Jon Richardson, who was the first black scholarship football player at Arkansas, fumbling in a game and having racial slurs yelled at him.
"I went home and finished watching the game on TV because I didn't want to start a mess up there," he said.
And of course, he highlighted the infamous story of Darrell Brown, one of the first African-American players to join UA's football team, being shot in the leg before one of the biggest games in college football history. Brown was on his way to help plan a protest of the playing of the song "Dixie" during a home game between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Arkansas - known as the "Game of the Century."
Murphy said his status as a star athlete protected him from some of the ramifications of that era, but there was a clear divide.
"They went to white parties. We went to black parties," he said. "It kind of started mixing a little bit in my fourth year, but that's just the way it was."
Football players like Terry Don Phillips, as well as his basketball roommate, helped him acclimate himself at the nearly all-white university.
Murphy's complaints with his alma mater were less about what he endured on campus, and more about what happened afterwards.
Despite being a high level talent in college, he said he received little help from Arkansas when it came to getting exposure or recognition for a potential professional career.
"If a pro (team) called Arkansas, they did not tell me," he said. "That's what hurts me. That's why I was mad. They didn't try to help me. All those records I broke, and I didn't hear from any pros."
After playing in Mexico for a while, and even trying out for football with the Dallas Cowboys at one point, Murphy found himself clawing for a spot on an NBA team, with tryouts for the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks.
When those didn't work out, he connected with an agent named Herb Rudoy, who told Murphy the only opportunity he had to compete professionally was in Israel. The only problem was there was a war simmering between Israel and surrounding countries at that time.
"I said, 'Are they fighting over there?' So I watched TV morning and night for a week, and I didn't see anything," he said. "So, I said, 'Okay, I'll go.' He sent me my ticket, and I went to Israel."
When wars broke out, his time there was cut short.
"We went out to play basketball with some soldiers at the Dead Sea. And there were grooves in the road," he said. "I asked, 'Why they got this road cut up like that?' They said it was for TNT. So, we were driving across TNT the whole time."
This time in Israel is where Murphy hit his breaking point.
"I started crying one night in Jerusalem, and I started screaming at God," he said. "I didn't even want to live there anymore. I was tired of people treating me like a dog everywhere I go. Then a voice came in the room and told me to go to Bethlehem."
From that moment on, he said he was called to ministry. After returning to finish the credits he needed for his degree at UA, Murphy came back to work in Texarkana where he's filled various roles, including that of a police officer for a few years. And he's been here ever since.
It's been far from a smooth road, as he endured a nearly fatal plane crash in 2004 and was placed on probation in 2015 due to an incident involving marijuana on an aircraft of his - which he was discharged from in 2019, according to the Washington County District Clerk's Office. But through it all, his presence in the church as a pastor has been his home beacon.
Preaching at various locations in the Texarkana area, including Freedom Fellowship church and Church on the Rock, he's made his religious presence felt the same as he did crashing the glass for an offensive rebound in the Arkansas Fieldhouse.
"I minister every day," he said. "You got to love people, no matter what position they are in. God is love."