Felt it needs its own thread. He was the first coach at Charlotte. Had some success too. They won their NAIA conference 2x (no excuses like football). Little known fact, in 1970 Bob Lemon was a 5th year senior paying his own 5th year tuition and only took 6 hours. When Murphy sent in his paperwork to enter the national NAIA tournament as conf champs, we were denied and they erased our wins! Greensboro College got our bid. The next year NAIA changed rules so 5th year players don’t need a full load and restored our wins and title. He also put Foster on staff who engineered the team Lee Rose inherited.
Ignorance of nnn showing, shocked at lack of condolences. Being 1st at something like 49er hoops is historic. Guess I’m biased. One of my best friends and mentors was one of his best players
Harvey was a good man. In addition to being hired by Bonnie Cone to jumpstart intercollegiate athletics and the physical education program at UNCC, he had served as the first men’s basketball coach at Shorter College (now University) in Rome, GA. His successor as coach at both Shorter and UNCC - Bill Foster.
I read Dr. Murphy’s obituary in The Observer, but did not realize he was the coach before Bill Foster. Bonnie Cone (and Dr. Colvard, I guess) made a great choice by hiring him to set up the PE Department and to begin and run the Athletic Department.
Other schools did not make the choice to move into D1 sports in such an accelerated time frame. UNCG was not playing D1 sports until the early 1990s. Despite the stretches of bad records, Charlotte’s choice to move to D1 so early resulted in the NIT finals and Final Four in back to back seasons and put the school on the map.
Thanks for posting the link to the obituary on the funeral home website. Note his family wishes for gifts to be made to the endowed scholarship set up in his name.
Being on one of his early teams, I can say he was a fair, knowledgeable, disciplinarian who should have gotten more credit for the contributions he made for the university and the start up athletic programs he nurtured.RIP Dr. Murphy.
Ignorance of nnn showing, shocked at lack of condolences. Being 1st at something like 49er hoops is historic. Guess I’m biased. One of my best friends and mentors was one of his best players[/quote]
Not even a tweet about it from the Charlotte 49ers or UNC Charlotte?
Full obituary for Dr. Murphy. I knew about his affinity for tennis but didn’t know he had also coached baseball as well! Not sure why the obit says he was interim basketball coach at UNCC since I haven’t ever seen him listed as such before.
