Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Where are They Now? - Pat Murphy
4/19/2020 12:34:00 PM | Baseball
BOCA RATON, Fla. – After playing basketball at Le Moyne College, and football and baseball at Bowling Green State University, Pat Murphy considered another sport for his professional career: boxing. Then an amateur fighter, Murphy headed down I-95 in search of Miami's 5th Street Gym, where he planned to train.
But Murphy's plans changed when he saw a sign for Florida Atlantic University. He exited on Boca Raton's Glades Road to visit the school, which was building a baseball program under coach Steve Traylor. Murphy knew in his "heart of hearts" he wanted to finish college and found that opportunity in the unlikeliest of places.
"Believe it or not, I met Traylor in the bathroom," Murphy said. "He told me, 'We're starting a program in baseball, why don't [you] jump into some classes and let's do it.'"
Heeding Traylor's advice, Murphy joined the Owls' 1981 inaugural team. The next season, Murphy's final as a college player, FAU improved from 15 to 42 wins and laid the groundwork for the ever-consistent program it is now.
Murphy advanced to the pros in 1983 but "never dreamed of being in the big leagues," so he turned to coaching. He skippered Division III Maryville College that year, then returned to FAU in '84 as a graduate assistant. Throughout, Murphy kept playing at the minor-league level but "knew in the back of my mind I was a coach," as did Traylor.
"Even though I was still playing, even though I was still getting my master's," Murphy said. "[Traylor] knew my life's work was coaching."
Through coaching Murphy drew the attention of Notre Dame, the university he "dreamed all my life of going to." It rejected him four times as a student but couldn't deny him as a coach. Murphy's instant success with Division III Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1986-87) and Holland's national team ('87) made that clear.
In 1988 Notre Dame named Murphy, then only 29, its head coach. And the decision paid immediate dividends. Murphy led the Fighting Irish to their first-ever 30-win campaign in his first season and won 40-plus games each of his next six years at the helm. His teams collected four conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances over that seven-year stretch.
"With the help of a lot of people and the spirit of the university," Murphy said, "we got it going really quickly."
After the '94 season Murphy left Notre Dame to coach Arizona State and his winning aura followed. Murphy's perspective, though, changed dramatically upon the birth of his son, Kai. Once considered gruff and demanding, Kai's presence helped Murphy become gentle and instructive instead.
"When I had my little boy in 2000, I really started to understand that every kid I coached was somebody's Kai Joseph, my little boy," said Murphy, whose son is now a freshman pitcher at Oregon State. "So, when I started to get that perspective of it wasn't about me but about those kids, I got even better. My record was still the same and we still did great on the field achievement-wise, but it was more about being about the right things."
The Sun Devils sure did all the right things on the field. Over Murphy's 12 years in Tempe, ASU won the Pac-10 Conference four times, polled in the Top 25 for 100 straight weeks, reached the postseason 11 times and made four College World Series appearances. Murphy, who won a combined five Coach of the Year awards between Baseball America and the Pac-10, was on pace to be the winningest coach in the history of the sport.
On Nov. 20, 2009, though, Murphy's run at the college baseball record books ended abruptly. Murphy resigned amid an NCAA investigation into the program, an experience he admits "kind of knocked me back."
But Murphy, the former boxer, got right back off the mat. He joined the San Diego Padres in 2010 as a special assistant to baseball operations and skippered teams in their farm system for five
seasons.
Then on June 16, 2015, the Padres thrust Murphy into the spotlight. The team named him its interim manager after firing then-skipper Bud Black 65 games into the season. But although managerial jobs are the most coveted in the sport, Murphy's came with unique challenges. Most notably: Murphy got the news at 7:20 a.m. and his first game, with a team full of players he barely knew and a staff full of coaches who wanted his job, was scheduled for noon.
"I had a whole four hours and 40 minutes to meet everybody and talk to everybody and get it started, and then we went out and played 13 straight days," said Murphy, whose Padres closed the season 42-54 under him. "It's just a whirlwind, and to say I was ready for it, no way. But to say that I handled myself pretty well, in some situations, I did. Did I make some mistakes? Oh, sure. Do I regret some of the things I said or moves I made? Sure. But anybody would in that situation. The next time I get in that situation, trust me: things will be different, wins and loss-wise.
"To say it was easy, to say it was fun, to say it was rewarding, it wasn't any of those things," Murphy added. "But it was an unbelievable experience, learning experience, and just a great...it made me want to coach in the big leagues. I said, 'Now I got to get to work.'"
Murphy did exactly that with someone he knew intimately: Craig Counsell, his first-ever recruit at Notre Dame and the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. The two kept in contact long after their time in South Bend, so when Counsell needed a bench coach in 2015, Murphy was the obvious choice.
Under Counsell and Murphy's direction, the Brewers reached the postseason each of the last two seasons and were a game away from the World Series in 2018. Still, Murphy wants more, hoping to develop "a program that doesn't just win for three years but wins every year."
Murphy's role in that development is different now, as he's an assistant for the first time since 1984 at FAU. But in each of those positions, stretched decades apart, Murphy discovered a shared trait between the head coaches he worked for: a lack of ego.
Traylor and Counsell's humility, Murphy says, is what sets them apart. And looking back to how Murphy's career started, by making that impromptu Glades Road exit to FAU, he can't help but see his journey in their eyes.
"Without it, I'm nowhere," said Murphy, an FAU baseball Hall of Famer and a member of the program's 20th Anniversary Team. "Because (otherwise) I'm boxing in the 5th Street Gym in Miami, and those careers don't last very long."
But Murphy's plans changed when he saw a sign for Florida Atlantic University. He exited on Boca Raton's Glades Road to visit the school, which was building a baseball program under coach Steve Traylor. Murphy knew in his "heart of hearts" he wanted to finish college and found that opportunity in the unlikeliest of places.
"Believe it or not, I met Traylor in the bathroom," Murphy said. "He told me, 'We're starting a program in baseball, why don't [you] jump into some classes and let's do it.'"
Heeding Traylor's advice, Murphy joined the Owls' 1981 inaugural team. The next season, Murphy's final as a college player, FAU improved from 15 to 42 wins and laid the groundwork for the ever-consistent program it is now.
Murphy advanced to the pros in 1983 but "never dreamed of being in the big leagues," so he turned to coaching. He skippered Division III Maryville College that year, then returned to FAU in '84 as a graduate assistant. Throughout, Murphy kept playing at the minor-league level but "knew in the back of my mind I was a coach," as did Traylor.
"Even though I was still playing, even though I was still getting my master's," Murphy said. "[Traylor] knew my life's work was coaching."
Through coaching Murphy drew the attention of Notre Dame, the university he "dreamed all my life of going to." It rejected him four times as a student but couldn't deny him as a coach. Murphy's instant success with Division III Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1986-87) and Holland's national team ('87) made that clear.
In 1988 Notre Dame named Murphy, then only 29, its head coach. And the decision paid immediate dividends. Murphy led the Fighting Irish to their first-ever 30-win campaign in his first season and won 40-plus games each of his next six years at the helm. His teams collected four conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances over that seven-year stretch.
"With the help of a lot of people and the spirit of the university," Murphy said, "we got it going really quickly."
After the '94 season Murphy left Notre Dame to coach Arizona State and his winning aura followed. Murphy's perspective, though, changed dramatically upon the birth of his son, Kai. Once considered gruff and demanding, Kai's presence helped Murphy become gentle and instructive instead.
"When I had my little boy in 2000, I really started to understand that every kid I coached was somebody's Kai Joseph, my little boy," said Murphy, whose son is now a freshman pitcher at Oregon State. "So, when I started to get that perspective of it wasn't about me but about those kids, I got even better. My record was still the same and we still did great on the field achievement-wise, but it was more about being about the right things."
The Sun Devils sure did all the right things on the field. Over Murphy's 12 years in Tempe, ASU won the Pac-10 Conference four times, polled in the Top 25 for 100 straight weeks, reached the postseason 11 times and made four College World Series appearances. Murphy, who won a combined five Coach of the Year awards between Baseball America and the Pac-10, was on pace to be the winningest coach in the history of the sport.
On Nov. 20, 2009, though, Murphy's run at the college baseball record books ended abruptly. Murphy resigned amid an NCAA investigation into the program, an experience he admits "kind of knocked me back."
But Murphy, the former boxer, got right back off the mat. He joined the San Diego Padres in 2010 as a special assistant to baseball operations and skippered teams in their farm system for five
seasons.Then on June 16, 2015, the Padres thrust Murphy into the spotlight. The team named him its interim manager after firing then-skipper Bud Black 65 games into the season. But although managerial jobs are the most coveted in the sport, Murphy's came with unique challenges. Most notably: Murphy got the news at 7:20 a.m. and his first game, with a team full of players he barely knew and a staff full of coaches who wanted his job, was scheduled for noon.
"I had a whole four hours and 40 minutes to meet everybody and talk to everybody and get it started, and then we went out and played 13 straight days," said Murphy, whose Padres closed the season 42-54 under him. "It's just a whirlwind, and to say I was ready for it, no way. But to say that I handled myself pretty well, in some situations, I did. Did I make some mistakes? Oh, sure. Do I regret some of the things I said or moves I made? Sure. But anybody would in that situation. The next time I get in that situation, trust me: things will be different, wins and loss-wise.
"To say it was easy, to say it was fun, to say it was rewarding, it wasn't any of those things," Murphy added. "But it was an unbelievable experience, learning experience, and just a great...it made me want to coach in the big leagues. I said, 'Now I got to get to work.'"
Murphy did exactly that with someone he knew intimately: Craig Counsell, his first-ever recruit at Notre Dame and the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. The two kept in contact long after their time in South Bend, so when Counsell needed a bench coach in 2015, Murphy was the obvious choice.
Under Counsell and Murphy's direction, the Brewers reached the postseason each of the last two seasons and were a game away from the World Series in 2018. Still, Murphy wants more, hoping to develop "a program that doesn't just win for three years but wins every year."
Murphy's role in that development is different now, as he's an assistant for the first time since 1984 at FAU. But in each of those positions, stretched decades apart, Murphy discovered a shared trait between the head coaches he worked for: a lack of ego.
Traylor and Counsell's humility, Murphy says, is what sets them apart. And looking back to how Murphy's career started, by making that impromptu Glades Road exit to FAU, he can't help but see his journey in their eyes.
"Without it, I'm nowhere," said Murphy, an FAU baseball Hall of Famer and a member of the program's 20th Anniversary Team. "Because (otherwise) I'm boxing in the 5th Street Gym in Miami, and those careers don't last very long."
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