WHATEVER HAPPENED TO……….………….. ’64 Jim Murphy
By Jim Meenan: Alumni Relations Coordinator
Remember Pioneer baseball coach and former Pioneer player Jim
Murphy? Truly one of the greatest high school coaches ever to
come out of Alleman, the former Pioneer player and later coach,
is now semi-retired from the game he loved and was involved
with 45 years as a coach.
Murphy, now 69, looks back fondly at his time at his alma mater.
“When I coached there it was everything to me,” said Murphy. “It
was what I wanted to do. I absolutely adored it.”
Murphy also played second base on the 1964 Alleman team that
went to State and came very close to reaching the semifinals. In fact the winning run in a 4-3
loss benefitted from the fact there was no actual fence at the state tournament back then. So a
double or triple, easily turned into a home run.
Murphy coached at Alleman from 1976 to 1983, carving a 133-90 record that included winning
4 regional titles, 2 Western Big 6 titles plus a share of another and 2 district championships. Of
course, his coaching resume pretty much soared after that, the end result his election into the
Iowa Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Murphy coached at Assumption High School in Davenport (winning state titles there in 1992,
’93 and ’95 and 9 conference titles in 11 years) and Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Fla.
(winning 5 district titles and 6 conference titles in 8 years). He also coached at Iowa State
University (where he was the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator), St. Ambrose University
and Black Hawk College. With the exception of Iowa State, he was the head coach in all of those
positions, carving an 877-411 as a high school coach. If you count seven years as head coach in
the American Legion Baseball, he is well over 1,000 wins.
Jim officially retired two years ago. Living in baseball haven Peoria, Ariz., Jim still gets his
Baseball Jones by serving as an Associate Baseball Scout with Los Angeles
“Catholic
Dodgers and cutting the grass at the Padres and Mariners spring training
education is
site two days a week. He’s also an advisor with College Baseball Advisors,
second to none,”
which tries to land scholarships for baseball players throughout America
Jim said. “It was
Jim studied baseball at Henze University and the Cox Institute. OK, Gene
Henze was his baseball coach at Alleman and Dave Cox coached him in the
summer. They were his baseball mentors, he said, with Henze teaching him
the love of the game.
an eye-opener
being in the
public schools.”
-
Jim Murphy
Henze eventually went to Black Hawk College and Murphy joined him as an assistant coach at
age 23. He not only coached but showed up daily with a notebook in his back pocket to take
notes from Henze. “I loved it,” Murphy said. Henze also took the 1966 Alleman team to state
back when it was just a one-class system.
Jim remembers his dad making the decision to send him and his brother, Joe, to Alleman. “My
father would not even think of me going to a public school,” Jim said. “I am better for it, to be a
part of a community that a Catholic education offers.”
As a coach, he later saw clear-cut differences, too. “Catholic education is second to none,” Jim
said. “It was an eye-opener being in the public schools.”
Jim has been married to Kathy Ommen ’77 for 32 years, and has 3 adult children and four
grandchildren. If you want to reach out to Jim, you can locate him at [email protected]
Expect to talk some baseball.
Murph’s Memories
Some of the best of Alleman baseball players during his tenure as a coach from 1976 to 1983.
Best pitchers: Chris Lemon, Pat Corrigan.
Best catcher: The late Greg Podgorny.
Best hitter: Pete Murray.
Best fielder: Kevin Rafferty.
Special mention; Kevin Corrigan, Danny O’Keefe, Pat O’Brien.
His toughest Alleman team: 1983. “Good chemistry. They came out of nowhere to win the
regional.”