Casual Style Marks Murphy’s Introduction at Fullerton College

There was supposed to be a press conference Friday to introduce Gene Murphy as the football coach at Fullerton College.

But because news of the selection leaked three weeks ago, the gathering served more as a chance for everyone to smile and talk about how happy they are that the announcement is finally a matter of public record.

Murphy, who retired from Cal State Fullerton last fall after 13 years, will get back to his true love: coaching.

He has been working at a travel agency since the end of the football season.

Murphy, 53, announced his retirement Oct. 1 and Cal State Fullerton suspended the program Dec. 7. The plan is to bring the program back at Division I-AA level in 1994.

“I’m just excited and elated that it happened right here at Fullerton College,” Murphy said Friday. “Somebody asked me if I was happy I got the job and ‘the’ is not the word. The word is ‘this.’ This is the job I wanted.”

Athletic Director Jim Kiefer completed a year-long search to find a successor for Hal Sherbeck, who won 241 games, 16 conference championships and four national championships in 31 years at Fullerton.

“This is the worst-kept best secret in the county in a long time,” Kiefer said to open the press conference.

Maybe the happiest people at the conference were Marv Sampson and Glenn Thomas. They were interim co-coaches last fall and suffered through a 1-9 season, the worst in the history of the college.

Thomas, going into his 21st season, will be back to being only the offensive line coach and Sampson, going into his 31st, returns as offensive coordinator.

“Happy?” Thomas said. “I’m delighted. We think this is really going to be fun. (Murphy) has a lot of fun in his life and he has a great attitude.

“Everybody speaks highly of him. Every door we knocked on (to ask about Murphy) had a smile behind it.”

Sampson: “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m really glad that it’s Gene who’s taking over. I can’t wait to get started.”

Murphy was offered and accepted the Fullerton position April 23 but because of bureaucratic procedures, he couldn’t take over the position until the North Orange County Community College Board of Trustees approved it Tuesday night.

The only time the Friday meeting took on a serious tone was when Murphy was asked to reflect on his final days at Cal State Fullerton, where he had a 59-89-1 record.

Cal State Fullerton won Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. titles in 1983 and 1984, but the final three seasons wore down Murphy.

The Titans were 5-29 in that span as budget cuts forced his once-proud program into a position of sacrificing itself against the likes of Georgia, Auburn and UCLA for large financial guarantees to help support the athletic department.

“I just don’t want to go into all that. I still have friends there,” he said.

Next fall at Fullerton will be the first time since Murphy has been a head coach that his team will have an equal number of home and road games.

“It will be fun to compete on a level playing field again,” Murphy said. “(No team) will have an outlandish competitive advantage or disadvantage.”

Fullerton opens the season Sept. 11 at Long Beach and plays its first home game Sept. 18 against Pasadena.

The Hornets’ home field is Fullerton District Stadium but there is a deal in the works to have the games played at Titan Sports Complex on the Cal State Fullerton campus.

Since getting the job, Murphy has spoken to the team once and said he plans to have one-on-one meetings with every player before classes end in two weeks. Murphy and his staff will also have a recruiting meeting Monday.