Derrick Henry has a Heisman Trophy, a national career rushing record and more than 10,000 NFL yards. Ryan Murphy has nine Olympic medals and the title of America’s top backstroke swimmer for the past decade. Now, both Northeast Florida stars are part of another list of the nation’s best.
MaxPreps selected former Yulee running back Henry and former Bolles swimmer Murphy to its list of the United States’ top 100 high school athletes of the 21st century to date.
Henry placed fourth in the MaxPreps list, which spanned the years from 2000-01 to 2024-25, while Murphy ranked 76th overall.
At Yulee from 2009-12, Henry racked up 12,124 career yards to break the all-time national record set in 1953 by Ken Hall of Sugar Land in Texas. Henry also ran for 153 touchdowns, gained 4,261 yards in his senior season, set a Florida record with a 502-yard night against Jackson on Sept. 21, 2012 and led the Hornets to the Florida High School Athletic Association semifinals.
The 2015 Heisman Trophy winner is coming off a 1,921-yard, 16-touchdown season with the Baltimore Ravens in which he averaged a career-best 5.9 yards per carry. With 11,423 career yards, the 31-year-old ranks 19th on the NFL all-time list.
Murphy, meanwhile, helped Bolles to four consecutive FHSAA team championships from 2009-12 as part of Florida’s longest streak ever. He won four consecutive individual titles in the 100-yard backstroke and two in the 200 individual medley while helping bring home numerous relay trophies.
Now a three-time Olympian and five-time gold medalist, he still holds six school records at Bolles (100 back, 50 and 100 freestyle and three relays).
MaxPreps listed LeBron James, Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray as the top three in its ranking.
Murphy, 30, came in fourth and Henry sixth in the Times-Union’s Jax Greatest 100 project compiled in the summer of 2024.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: America’s best since 2000: Which Jacksonville stars made national MaxPreps high school list?
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
