Longtime voice of sports at Stanford
Bob Murphy, the passionate and longtime voice of Stanford sports, died Tuesday morning in Santa Cruz, the school announced. He was 86.
Mr. Murphy died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He had suffered from the disease for several years.
Mr. Murphy worked for Stanford in several capacities, starting in the mid-1960s and culminating with his retirement in 2007. At the time, he was the analyst on football radio broadcasts and handled play-by-play of men’s basketball broadcasts.
He also worked as Stanford’s sports information director from the mid-1960s to the mid’70s and as San Jose State’s athletic director for three years in the late 1970s.
His most memorable call probably was Stanford’s victory over Rhode Island in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal rallied late to earn a Final
Four berth, and Mr. Murphy shouted in exuberance when Arthur Lee’s steal led to a Mark Madsen dunk (and Rhode Island foul) in the closing minute.
“Madsen stuffed it! Madsen stuffed it! ... AND ... HE ... WAS ... FOULED!”
“I’ve probably heard the call 200 or 300 times, and it never gets old,” said Stanford broadcaster John Platz, a former player who worked nearly two decades with Mr. Murphy. “I think that is the signature Stanford radio call in the history of the school. The way he said it, the words he chose, the pronounced cadence ... I can still feel it sitting next to him.”
Platz said Mr. Murphy owned an “unparalleled knowledge of Stanford sports history.”
“If you met him, you never forgot him,” said Gary Cavalli, who worked with Mr. Murphy at Stanford and later succeeded him as the school’s sports information director. “He knew everybody and remembered everybody’s name. He just did an amazing job for Stanford in so many ways.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone as synonymous with Stanford athletics as Murph.”
Mr. Murphy graduated from Stanford in 1953 and, as a pitcher, helped the Cardinal reach the College World Series that year.
He began working as the school’s sports information director in 1964. Six years later, he found himself contemplating ways to boost quarterback Jim Plunkett’s candidacy for the Heisman Trophy.
Cavalli, then a student assistant for Mr. Murphy, recalled that Mississippi quarterback Archie Manning and Notre Dame’s Joe Theismann had higher profiles at the season’s outset. But Mr. Murphy convinced ABC to televise Stanford’s game against highly ranked Arkansas, according to Cavalli — and Plunkett played brilliantly in leading his team to victory.
“That was really the beginning of the possibility of Plunkett actually winning,” Cavalli said. “Jim deserved the Heisman — he earned it — but Murph gave him a chance.”
Later in the 1970 season, Cavalli said, Mr. Murphy tracked down the addresses of all Heisman Trophy voters from friend Tom Harmon, the 1940 winner of the award. Mr. Murphy and Cavalli put together a four-page brochure on Plunkett, which they then sent to every voter.
“It became kind of a joke between us,” Plunkett said, in a story posted on Stanford’s website. “He spent $175 on my Heisman campaign. Just a folded piece of paper that he mailed to writers around the country . ...
“Murph was behind me 100 percent. A lot of people didn’t know me around the country, and he did a great job.”
As a football color analyst, Mr. Murphy didn’t have the background of a former player or coach. He relied on his knowledge of the school and its history to enhance a broadcast.
“He was a baseball player, so he didn’t know football, but he knew Stanford, and he knew how to make a Stanford listener feel comfortable with the broadcast,” said Ted Robinson, who worked with Mr. Murphy for 13 football seasons.
Mr. Murphy briefly left the Bay Area in 1974 to work for Jack Nicklaus in launching the Memorial Tournament outside Columbus, Ohio. He returned to take the AD job at San Jose State before finding his way back to Stanford.
Over the years, Mr. Murphy kept his foot in the golf world. He was an enduring presence at the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm, including serving as the good-natured master of ceremonies at the annual California Golf Writers dinner.
Robinson called Mr. Murphy “the best dinner speaker/emcee I have ever heard . ... And to this day, I use things I stole from Murph when I have to do the same things . ... He is the best I’ve ever heard at just making a room feel connected.”
Mr. Murphy is survived by his wife, Gail; children KC and Vicki; and stepchildren Gini Wright and Gregory Hartley. Mr. Murphy was predeceased by two other children, Jimmy and Marisa.
Ron Kroichick and Steve Kroner are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: rkroichick@ sfchronicle.com, skroner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick, @SteveKronerSF