Murphy Garners Coaching Honors

After guiding his squad to its first Ivy League championship since 1987, Harvard football Coach Tim Murphy was just named the New England Division 1-A/1-AA Coach of the Year.

Hailing from the University of Cincinnati, where he led the Bearcats to a 8-3 record in 1993, Murphy came to Harvard and proceeded to build a struggling program into an Ivy League juggernaut.

"This is an award to be shared with all the players and all of the assistant coaches on our team," Murphy said. "The players did everything we asked and did it with pride and purpose, and it was the assistant coaches who saw to it that we were prepared and ready to play at the highest level each week."

The beginning of his tenure, however, was not always so rewarding. His first three years, for instance, proved to be quite rocky as the Crimson managed only 10 wins.

But it was this past 1997 season where Murphy's rebuilding finally came to fruition. Boasting a roster made up entirely of all his recruits, the fourth-year coach spearheaded the Crimson to one of its finest years in the program's 124 years.

Murphy will be officially honored at the New England Football Writers Annual Captains and Awards Banquet, which will be held on Wednesday at the Lantana Restaurant in Randolf, Mass.