Murphy Re-upped Through 2011

At the same time that many schools hunt for new head men, Tim Murphy has been reappointed as the Thomas Stephenson Family Head Coach for Harvard Football through 2011, the Department of Athletics announced yesterday.

Murphy, who has been head coach of the Crimson since arriving from Cincinnati on Dec. 6, 1993, is coming off a campaign in which he led Harvard to a 7-3 record, 4-3 in the Ivy League. It was the Crimson’s sixth consecutive season with at least seven wins, including two undefeated seasons. Murphy is 80-49 as the head coach at Harvard, and is just the fourth man to hold the position in the last 57 years.

Murphy has also won three Ivy League championships with the Crimson, gaining crowns in 1997, 2001, and 2004, and moved into second on the all-time coaching wins list at Harvard this season.

“We have cherished our 13 years at Harvard,” Murphy said last night, “and I’d love to coach another 10 more here until my kids get through college.”

The Athletic Department was also pleased with the announcement.

“We are thrilled with the job that Tim Murphy has done in his first 13 years at Harvard, and we are proud that he will be our head football coach for the foreseeable future,” Nichols Family Director of Athletics Bob Scalise said in a statement.

While his name has not come up in relation to any of the 10 Division I-A coaching jobs that have come up over the course of the season, the reappointment also pre-empts any speculation about his possible departure for another school. Over the course of his tenure in Cambridge, Murphy has been mentioned as a possible candidate for coaching vacancies at Delaware, Navy, Indiana, and Florida.

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer David H. Stearns contributed to the reporting of this story.