James K. Murphy has been elected to the Northeastern University Hall of Fame for excellence in the sport of football.
Murphy, Class of 1998, was a highly touted recruit out of Reading High School, where he had won 10 varsity letters, quarterbacked the football team to an undefeated season as a senior, and captained the football, basketball and baseball teams.
After redshirting his freshman year at NU, he won the starting QB job in the fourth game of 1994 and went on to start 41 consecutive games. His career showed steady progress as the Huskies went 2-9 in 1994, 4-7 in 1995, 6-5 in 1996, and 8-3 in 1997. The back-to-back winning campaigns of 1996 and '97 were the first consecutive winning seasons in 30 years of NU football.
In his final game versus undefeated and top-ranked Villanova, the 8-2 Huskies were battling for an NCAA playoff bid. Murphy had the best day of his career, throwing for a school-record 382 yards and four touchdowns as an injury-riddled NU team led deep into the fourth quarter only to lose 49-35. In his next-to-last game - forever to be known as "Murphy's Miracle" - he scrambled for 10 seconds and with no time left threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Dave Klemic for a 23-17 victory over Maine.
During that senior season, Murphy became one of only a few players ever to win two Gold Helmet Awards as New England Player of the Week. At year's end he became only the second Husky to win the Harry Agganis Award as the outstanding senior in New England and the Bulger Lowe Award as the outstanding player in New England. Dan Ross won both awards in 1978. He also was voted to the New England All-Star Team.
A quick peek at the Northeastern individual passing records will find the name Jim Murphy appearing 34 times. He holds nearly every NU passing mark, including most yards in a game (382), season (2823) and career (7804). Murphy shattered the school's all-time passing mark by over 3000 yards. He also holds the season and career records for completions and completion percentage. His total of 40 career touchdown tosses also is the NU standard.
Murphy maintained a 3.2 GPA in the School of Finance and won the Herbert W. Gallagher Award as NU's outstanding scholar-athlete.
After graduation he spent two seasons with the New England Patriots.
