Tim Murphy Talks About His Past, His Present and His (Crimson) Future

When Tim Murphy, the new head coach of the Harvard football program, met his players for the first time last Monday, he felt he had to apologize for being late, although one couldn't blame him for his tardiness. After all, such a transfer of power hadn't occurred here in the last 23 years.

"[Being late] will never happen again," Murphy said nonetheless, and after a brief pause he continued, "And that goes for you, too."

Murphy had broken the ice, and a fresh new era of Harvard football had begun.

Ivy League football has always been something special to Murphy, ever since he was about 11 years old.

"I think it got started when I was a kid. A friend of my father's took us to a Dartmouth-Harvard game at Harvard and then took us to another one up at Dartmouth," Murphy says. "The players were like gods to me. That was just the ultimate--Harvard football, Ivy League football."

The Kingston, Mass., native didn't matriculate at Harvard, but rather at Springfield College, where he was named an All-American linebacker.

But the Ivy League did offer him his first college coaching job. He was an offensive line coach at Brown, a position he took in 1979.

"I loved the atmosphere--kids playing there just for the love of football," Murphy says. "They didn't have to play. They just wanted to."

Murphy knew by then that he wanted to be a head football coach somewhere, but he didn't know if or when he would get the opportunity.

"I had wanted to be a head coach so badly, and I set a goal to be a head coach by the time I was 30," Murphy says. Otherwise, "I would go out and finish my MBA."

The clock struck midnight and Murphy's dream of being a head coach by age 30 was all but over. He had to get on with his life--the Kellogg School at Northwestern had already accepted him.

Murphy had already packed his bags, so to speak, when his phone rang. It was the University of Maine, offering him a job as a head coach.

"I was very fortunate--it was either divine intervention or fate," Murphy says.

Two successful years at Maine gave Murphy the chance to land the University of Cincinnati head coaching position, a major step up from the Division 1-AA Black Bears to the Division 1-A Bearcats. The new athletic director at Cincinnati had been Murphy's chief at Boston University, where he had spent three years as an offensive line coach.

"I really wanted the chance to coach major college football," Murphy says. "I was also fortunate to have some success at Maine."

Murphy implemented an offensive program that had an even balance between its running and passing games. After two dismal seasons of 1-9-1 and 1-10, Murphy was able to completely rebuild the Bearcat program, and he finished his fifth and final season with an 8-3 record.

Despite his success and the higher quality of Division 1-A football, Murphy felt that the Harvard position was just too good to pass up.

It didn't matter that his salary would be slashed by up to 40 percent or that he would have a staff half as large as the one with which he worked at Cincinnati. Harvard and the Ivy League was always something special to Murphy, and he couldn't say no.

"Harvard fits my personality and my goals in life," Murphy says. "I was absolutely energized just by being on campus the 24 hours around my press conference."

"The overall energy level of the entire university is just amazing--it's almost palpable. From that standpoint it's a very attractive place," he says.

Also attractive to Murphy is the chance to rebuild the Crimson program, as he has done so successfully at Cincinnati over the past five seasons.

"My goals here are to help improve the program--to bring it back to a point first of being more competitive in the league, to be a winning program in the league, then ultimately to win the Ivy League championship," Murphy says.

And the whole rebuilding process starts with solid recruiting, according to Murphy.

"Like anything, you're only as good as the people you have. At Maine and Cincinnati, we recruited good student-athletes," Murphy says. "I pride myself on the ability to recruit, and I enjoy the challenge of recruiting."

However, recruiting at the Ivy League level is not as easy as it is at other institutions.

A Cincinnati or Florida State, for example, can go after the best high-school football players and can offer them football scholarships, not to mention a less stringent academic requirement.

A football program like Harvard's, in contrast, takes from only the top ten percent of student-athletes and doesn't hand out any athletic scholarships at all.

"I really believe that the type of individual we are recruiting wants that unbelievable challenge of this type of education," Murphy says. "I think you have a chance to at least get in the front door of any kid who wants that type of education."

"There's no question in my mind that we can go out and find 35 student-athletes that can help make Harvard a very solid to exceptional Ivy League program," he says.

Another main reason Murphy accepted the Harvard job is his two young children, whom he wants them to grow up in a good, stable environment.

"That was certainly a consideration in the Harvard job," Murphy says. "I can't think of a better place in the world to raise a family, in terms of culture, education, and unbelievable role models in terms of the students at Harvard."

Murphy has proven elsewhere that he can take a program that is in disarray and turn it around.

But he left each of his four assistant coaching and two head coaching positions after a maximum of five years, while Joe Restic lasted here for 23 years.

Does Murphy see himself staying here for a long time?

"That's a tough question to answer. I just want to get to the point in five years where they'll ask me to come back," Murphy chuckles, "And I hope that they will."