Murphy, Bob

Biographical/Historical note

Bob Murphy was a Stanford guy from the very beginning. Born at Stanford Hospital in 1931, he grew up in Burlingame where his grandfather was the first City clerk and their old family home was the seventh house built.

Showing early signs of the young rebel he would soon be, Bob left Burlingame every day to attend and ultimately graduate from San Mateo High School. On his way he would pass by Burlingame High School, and wouldn’t you know it, by his senior year it was the San Mateo Bearcats beating the Burlingame Panthers for the Baseball Championship of the Peninsula Athletic League.

Bob went on to Stanford University where he graduated in four years. In his senior season of 1953, he helped pitch Stanford to its first ever appearance in the College World Series.

He signed a professional baseball contract with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League and beat the Portland Beavers 3-2 on the day he signed his first contract. He enjoyed three years in professional baseball, two of them on championship teams.

As a young developer, Bob, with the help of Stanford swim coach Tom Haynie, brought the National AAU Swimming and Diving Championship to Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos Hills. He then went on to become a traveling consultant for the development and operation of Almaden, Palo Alto Hills, Sharon Heights Country Club, Butte Creek Country Club in Chico, and a golf and recreational development by Standard Oil in Orange County.

In 1962 when Chuck Taylor became Athletic Director at Stanford, he brought Bob back to "The Farm" as Manager of Athletic Relations. In the season of 1964 while at Notre Dame during a practice session, Don Klein asked Bob if he might like to sit in with him for the game broadcast the next day. Don was Stanford's very popular football announcer and had been the broadcaster for the San Francisco Seals when Bob played for Oakland. Bob sat in that day and would continue a career in front of a microphone for the next 43 years, longer than anyone else in PAC-10 history.

Murphy took over the role of Sports Information Director at Stanford in 1965 and remained in that position until 1974 when he left to help save the East/West Shrine Game. He was successful in moving the game to Stanford, where it remained for 25 years.

But Murph's real trademark is the stories, anecdotes and humor shared with generations of fans listening to his broadcasts or events he has emceed. Stanford coaches have always been fair game during a microphone session with Murph. Both the late Bill Walsh ("ladies and gentlemen, I present the Pontiff") and Mike Montgomery ("Mike, you need to play the Stanford course backward so you can get to know the other side of the fairway") frequently got the razz treatment. Murph would weave in stories of Stanford professors, locker room speeches, famous Stanford athletes of the past. A history major, Murph would talk about how the late Professor Tom Bailey would corner him in class to offer advice about pitching curve balls to Cal hitters.

Sources: San Jose Sports Authority Hall of Fame 2009

Stanford Alumni Magazine (November/December 2007)

From the guide to the Bob Murphy oral history and background material, 1997-2007, (Department of Special Collections and University Archives)