Revered Razorback
Randy Stephens graduated from the University of Arkansas more than three decades ago. But his legacy in Fayetteville will forever be enshrined.
In mid-September, Stephens, a former Razorbacks track and field standout and longtime Mountain Brook coach, was one of 15 athletes inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Honor.
“I feel really honored because there are a lot of guys on our team that I think probably, or for sure, are just as deserving, if not more, of getting in there,” he said.
Certainly, Stephens has earned his spot.
During a career that stretched from 1979 to 1982, he blossomed into a four-time NCAA All-American and four-time Southwest Conference individual champion.
As a senior, he won the 800-meter and 1,500-meter runs at the SWC Championships. The sweep, he said, was the highlight of his college career.
“We had never won a conference title, and I knew if we didn’t win both of those events, we weren’t going to win,” Stephens said. “We wound up winning our first outdoor conference title ever.”
A few weeks after that memorable breakthrough, Stephens further cemented his place in Arkansas lore.
With his triumph in the 1,000-yard run at the 1982 NCAA outdoor meet, he became the program’s first individual national champion.
“Randy Stephens was one of the first in a long history of outstanding middle-distance runners in Arkansas men’s track and field history,” the university said in a press release announcing his selection to the hall.
Stephens was inducted Sept. 14 during a ceremony held at the Fayetteville Town Center. The next day, he was introduced and recognized at Arkansas’ football game against North Texas.
More than 15 family members, former teammates and former coaches attended the event in support of Stephens.
The contingent included John McDonnell, the head coach at Arkansas from 1972 to 2008. McDonnell guided the Razorbacks cross-country and track and field teams to 40-plus national titles, far and away the most in NCAA history.
“He was the Bear Bryant of track and field,” Stephens said.
McDonnell recruited Stephens out of Birmingham’s Woodlawn High School, where he clinched multiple state championships and clocked a 4 minute, 10 second mile.
In Fayetteville, he trained with teammates like Frank O’Mara, who became an Olympian and world champion.
Stephens spent two years in the U.S. Olympic Development Program after graduating from Arkansas. He ran competitively until 1984 before shifting his professional focus.
“That’s when I started teaching and coaching,” Stephens said. “I ran road races and stuff, but then I started having kids, and that sort of went out the window too.”
Stephens began his education career at Banks Middle School in Birmingham, but he transferred to the Mountain Brook school system in the 1990s.
Stephens has helped coach football, wrestling and track at various times in the 23 years since his arrival. Twenty were spent as a teacher at Crestline Elementary School.
“The kids in school ask, ‘What’s the fastest mile you ever ran?’” Stephens recalled. “I say, ‘I ran 3:55 in college.’ They go, ‘That’s incredible.’ Then I go, ‘Yeah, I was the third-fastest person in my apartment because both of my roommates ran faster than I did.’”
Stephens is currently the head cross-country and track and field coach at Mountain Brook Junior High. More than 160 students ran cross-country for him this fall. If the past is any indication, he’ll have more than 200 come out for track this spring.
The numbers are substantial, but not surprising.
“People are mind-boggled when I tell them we have 200 kids come out for track,” Stephens said. “But it seems to be a program that the community has gotten behind.”