BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
The Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Martin County native Ervin Stepp is among its 2023 Class of Inductees.
The 14 inductees include players and coaches representing a great wealth of achievement over the decades. Stepp is the Region 15 representative.
After playing his freshman and sophomore seasons at Sheldon Clark High School, Stepp transferred to Phelps in Pike County and played for his brother Joe Alan who had been named head coach there.
Stepp became a schoolboy legend and scoring machine at Phelps in his junior and senior seasons.
During his junior season in 1979, he averaged 47 points, 11 rebounds and five assists per game. His points per game average led the nation and broke the state record previously held by the legendary “King” Kelly Coleman.
Stepp amassed 1,275 that season and shot 60% from the field and 87% from the foul line. He was selected as first-team All-State.
During Stepp’s senior season he shattered his previous records as he led the nation in scoring again with an average of 53.7 points per game, along with 10 rebounds and five assists per game. He had a high game of 75 points, while his low game was 34.
Stepp is the only player in the history of Kentucky high school basketball to average more than 50 points a game for an entire season.
This was the era before the 3-point shot and many of Stepp’s goals came from long range.
Stepp also set the state record for the most free throws made in one season with 357, a mark that still stands and ranks second nationally.
He also tops the record for field goal attempts in one season with 943 and has the top two records for field goals made with 545 in 1980 and 478 in 1979.
Stepp set 42 state records, was named Mr. Basketball in 1980, was selected to the McDonald’s and Converse All-American teams, was named Kentucky Athlete of the Year by the Hertz Corporation, and was chosen First-Team All-State in every poll.
At 6-foot-2 with a 36-inch vertical leap, he had offers from Auburn, Morehead, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky and serious interest from Kentucky. He ended up playing at Eastern Kentucky, then played his final season at Alice Lloyd College, once again joining his brother Joe Alan who was head coach, and playing alongside his brother Jimmy Stepp.
In 2002, Stepp’s brother Joe Alan wrote a letter recommending his induction to the Dawahares/KHSAA Hall of Fame.
“The thing about Ervin for which I am most proud is not his Mr. Basketball Award, nor seeing his name scattered throughout the state and national record books, but the gratification in knowing that he remained humbled and embarrassed by all of the attention,” Joe Alan wrote.
Stepp was inducted into the Dawahares/KHSAA Hall of Fame in 2008.
The basketball legend resides in Warfield with his wife Teresa and daughter Cammi Jo and owns and operates Ashland Prosthetics.
