The students who will benefit from Jim Murphy’s $1.2 million endowment at Arkansas Tech University can thank his football skills for landing him there.
“Football’s been involved in different phases of my career,” he said.
Murphy, 74, has stayed involved with Arkansas Tech since he graduated in 1971. A former offensive guard for the Wonder Boys, he ended up in Russellville, thanks to playing football while stationed in England in the Air Force.
His father, George, was not happy that he joined the military.
Murphy grew up playing high school football in Victoria, Texas. He graduated when he was 17, and his father, an engineer, wanted him to go to college and follow the same career path.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at the time, so I told him I’d just go ahead and join the service. He was not really pleased about that because Vietnam was starting to take off,” Murphy said.
On Sept. 25, the day he turned 18, Murphy went to the military recruiting office, “raised my right hand and swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America,” he said.
After basic training, Murphy went to personnel school in Greenville, Mississippi, and met a guy in the firefighter school who invited him once to “come home with him.” The friend’s home was in Coal Hill, Arkansas, which was the first time Murphy had been to the state.
“I always thought it was ironic that my first trip here was to Coal Hill, and I ended up near there,” he said of the Johnson County community.
“We (he and his Arkansas friend) went back to the base, and he went on his way. He ended up in Germany, and I ended up in England in the Air Force with the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing.
“The interesting part was, when I was over in England, they were still playing American football,” he said. Murphy said there were seven bases in England, seven or eight in Germany and about that many in France, and each base had a football team.
“We would play for the English championship,” he said, and all the champions would play each other to be the European champion. He played three years for the Air Force and was captain of the team his last year. He said his team won the English championship all three years but lost the overall title to Germany each time.
“It happened that our head coach was from Arkansas, Maj. Jack Bailey. He had played at the [University of Arkansas] in Fayetteville. He graduated in ’51; he and Pat Summerall (now deceased) were roommates.” Summerall was a former Razorback football player and a longtime television sports announcer.
“We got to be good friends, and [Bailey] came home about a year before I left. He kept writing and calling and saying, ‘You need to come; I can get you a place to play somewhere in Arkansas.’”
After Murphy was discharged from the Air Force and on his way to Texas, he went to the University of Arkansas to meet with Bailey, who introduced him to Frank Broyles and others. An assistant coach, Wilson Matthews, had gone to Arkansas Tech.
“[Matthews] said, ‘Jim, I’ll be honest with you, at this level of football, you’re just not big enough. Jack says you’re tough enough; you’re just not big enough,’” Murphy said. He was 6-0, 220 pounds.
Murphy went to Arkansas Tech and met with then-coach Don Dempsey and assistant offensive-line coach Don Sevier.
“They said, ‘Well, we haven’t seen you play; we don’t have any game film. Can you come back in July and try out?’”
Murphy’s life might have turned out differently if Raymond Bright hadn’t been fishing that day. Murphy stopped at State Teachers College of Arkansas, now the University of Central Arkansas, in Conway first, because Bright had written him a letter offering him a half scholarship “sight unseen,” Murphy said.
Bright was out fishing the day he stopped in, so Murphy went on to Arkansas Tech and made his plans to try out in the summer. He went back to Texas and worked construction until time to try out with the Wonder Boys.
“They signed me to a four-year scholarship, and I’m still here,” he said. “I was older, 23, than the rest of the guys, coming out of the Air Force for four years. I started and played all four years I was here.”
Murphy was a key contributor on Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship teams in 1968 and 1970.
He hurt his knee his junior year — and played with it bandaged till the doctor said he needed surgery. He was out the rest of his junior season while he underwent rehabilitation, then got back to the game.
Murphy said his father was happy with his decision to attend Tech and play football.
“It’s a 12 1/2-hour drive from Victoria up here. On all the home games, my mother and dad would pack the car on Friday, and when they got off work, they’d drive all night and get up here on Saturday, early morning, get some rest and watch the ballgame. They came to every game,” Murphy said.
“I fell in love with the community, with Russellville, and made lots of friends. I thoroughly enjoyed my four years at Arkansas Tech.”
Murphy majored in economics and finance and took a job straight out of college as an auditor with the Internal Revenue Service in the Fayetteville office and lived in Springdale.
“It’s not the most pleasant job,” he said. “People don’t want to talk to you. They don’t want to say anything when you’re around.”
He didn’t stay there long. In October 1972, he came back to Russellville to take a job at his then-father-in-law’s insurance agency, Burnett-Turner Insurance Agency.
Murphy eventually co-owned the agency and later sold it. He will retire in January from what is now Brown and Brown Insurance Agency, where he started 47 years and three months ago.
Through the years, he continued to support his alma mater.
“I’ve done things out there (at ATU) for a long time in terms of contributions and helping with different organizations,” he said.
Murphy served on the Arkansas Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1980-83 and again from 2008-10. He was president of the Arkansas Tech Alumni Board in 2011.
He has held membership on the Arkansas Tech Council of Professionals, the Arkansas Tech Centennial Committee and the Arkansas Tech College of Business Advisory Council.
He was integral in the creation of the Arkansas Tech Alumni T-Club for former student-athletes and coaches and has served on the Alumni T-Club executive committee from its beginning in 2010.
“A lot of people thought I worked out there, but I didn’t,” Murphy said, laughing quietly. “Arkansas Tech — it’s almost like growing up there. Arkansas Tech actually became my second family.
“I stayed so involved with everybody out there. That was my support when I was younger, and the relationship became stronger as I got older.”
In 2013, Murphy received Arkansas Tech’s highest honor when he was inducted into the ATU Hall of Distinction.
Murphy was honored by the Arkansas Tech University Board of Trustees in October for a $1.2 million pledge through the ATU Foundation in support of scholarships.
“That’s something I’ve worked on for a while,” Murphy said. “It will endow at my death.”
Fritz Kronberger, chairman of the ATU Board of Trustees, read a citation honoring Murphy prior to the board’s meeting at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center in October.
“Throughout the almost 50 years since his graduation from Arkansas Tech, Mr. Murphy has remained a steadfast and loyal supporter of his alma mater,” Kronberger said.
“He defines what it means to be a Wonder Boy.”
Murphy said he appreciates the comment but is self-deprecating.
“It made me feel real good,” he said. “I’m not sure that I’m any more deserving that any other guy who came through that athletic program at Arkansas Tech.”
Murphy has tried to help other athletes through the years.
“I got involved with the students in trying to help some of them, primarily on the athletics side of it,” he said. “When they needed something, I tried to help them out. I actually got more involved with the international students because I realized the need they had and difficulties they had when they came here.”
For example, he helped a women’s basketball player from Venezuela, who he said became “almost like my daughter.” He recalled that he “by a fluke, had to take her to the hospital one time when there wasn’t anyone else to take her.”
Larry Brown, a member of the Russellville City Council, said he and Murphy have been friends for 51 years. Brown was a freshman and Murphy was a sophomore when they met playing football at Arkansas Tech.
“I was a running back; he was guard. He was older because he’d been in the Air Force. And he had a car, a Volkswagen [bug]. We’d get four football players in that thing,” Brown said, laughing at the memory.
“He’s been in the T-Club forever. When I moved back here [from Arizona] in 2007, he got me involved,” Brown said.
He said Murphy also encouraged him to finish his degree.
“In 2009 I went back; 2010, I finished,” Brown said. “I just had to finish three or four classes; that was it. I did well. The first time, it was lack of application.”
Brown said people don’t even know all the ways Murphy serves others.
“There’s a lot more to it than people see because he helps people all the time,” Brown said. “He’s generous, and he’s care-minded. He’s got such a good heart.”
Brown said Murphy sends yellow roses to the female athletic teams at the beginning of the year to recognize them, for example.
He said Murphy’s desire to give back to the community “is part of his lifestyle. It’s just one of the things he does. He’s been that way his whole life. He’s one of the good guys.”
Murphy said he looks forward to retirement so he can work more in his yard and continue to give back to the community and Arkansas Tech.
“I just want to enjoy what years I have left and still be able to do things for others. I think one of the things that’s lacking in our country today is taking care of each other,” he said.
That’s why this former football player is leaving a legacy.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-5671 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.