Murphy expressed her gratitude and appreciation for coaches that taught her integrity, hard work
Board of Education President and former Washington Township High School student-athlete Ginny Murphy was inducted to the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame, among 11 others from the area.
After spending most of her childhood hopping from one military base to another around the world, Murphy found home in Washington Township when her father purchased his first house in town following his retirement from the U.S. Air Force. She said it was here that she met mentors who taught her to reach high and achieve great things.
“They just opened their arms to me,” Murphy said. “I was always into sports growing up, but I moved into a new town and I was an outsider going into high school, but the coaches believed in me, they accepted me, they saw something in me.”
Murphy, who graduated from Washington Township High School in 1983, played field hockey, basketball and softball. As a junior, she led the Minutemaid basketball team to a 23–2 record and an Olympic Conference championship, and won the South Jersey Group IV title her senior year. While attending Ursinus College, Murphy was a four-year varsity starter and team captain.
In field hockey, Murphy earned MVP and All-South Jersey honors during high school and finished in the Division I Top 20 for three of her four seasons in college. Nominated to the Academic All-American Team in 1986, Murphy received the McIntyre Award as the top athlete at Ursinus.
Through her accomplishments, Murphy credited her drive for success to her coaches, whom she also named as her mentors.
In attendance at the 37th annual Gloucester County Hall of Fame Banquet — among family, friends and fellow community members — were a few of Murphy’s coaches from high school and Ursinus College. Murphy recognized Dawn Bunting, her high school basketball coach who led the team to back-to-back championships and a 44–4 record; Adele Boyd, an Olympian, former national field hockey player, member of the U.S. Field Hockey Hall of Fame and field hockey coach for Ursinus College at the time; and Lisa Ortip-Cornish, Murphy’s college basketball coach and Division I Kodak All-American Basketball Player from Villanova University. Murphy also acknowledged her high school field hockey coach, MaryAnn Shivers, who led her team to three straight championships and a 47–3 record.
“Coaches and teachers make a difference, and that’s how I got involved with the school board because what they said that meant something to me,” Murphy said. “I walked into those doors and they said, ‘this is what you’re going to do, this is what your potential is going to be and this is what we expect of you,’ and I bought it hook, line and sinker. I wanted to please them and wanted us to be good as teams.”
Murphy’s love for sports was sparked as a kid playing with her two older brothers and younger sister.
“When you’re traveling a lot, your siblings are your best friends because you’re picking up and moving and trying to meet new friends,” Murphy said. “I was the tomboy, I played with all the boys. That’s what they did; they played sports so I played sports. There wasn’t really an option, that’s just what we did.”
When Murphy and her family were living in Germany, she said she played on softball teams offered by the military base. However, the most organized sports she played was in Washington Township.
Murphy said one of her favorite memories of her athletic career was as she was leaving for Ursinus College. She went to visit Shivers, a Temple University alumni.
“The summer going into my freshman year of college, I was getting ready to leave for Ursinus and she called me up to stop by her house before I left. She said, ‘I’ll make a bet with you right now. I bet this Temple watch that Ursinus doesn’t beat Temple in the four years that you’re there,”’ Murphy said. “I was sitting there thinking, well, we have to play Temple four times, two at home, two away, and back in that time it was very unusual for a girls sports team to have turf fields, but Temple had one, and that gave them a huge advantage. So, I figured, they have to play on our grass twice, we have a shot at this, I’ll take that bet.”
The first three years at Ursinus, Murphy said, the games against Temple were one-goal games so, when it came to the final match-up during her senior year and the teams entered over-time with a 0–0 score, she and her team knew the pressure.
“Just like clockwork, the play goes, I make the cut, bam, it hits the wood bottom of the net and we won 1–0,” Murphy said. “She (Shivers) was at the game, and she walked up to me and said, ‘you know it was never really about the watch.’ That was her way of pushing me again and to keep me succeeding.”
Murphy said her recognition into the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame was an opportunity to thank those adults who helped structure her growing up, and honor their importance as coaches in her life.
“It’s not really about any records or what I accomplished,” Murphy said. “It was my opportunity to publicly, in front of a lot of people, say thank you for the time they put into me and that I hope I didn’t let them down in that process.”
Murphy said she is proud of her history in athletics and the community, and it gives her pride to bring recognition to Washington Township and Ursinus College.
“I try to lead a life according to the gospel of St. Luke, which says ‘to those who much is given, much is expected.’ If you have the gift of playing a particular sport, or music or whatever that gift is, there comes a responsibility of passing that along and giving back. That’s what I’ve tried to do,” Murphy said. “I’m really passionate about this community and doing things that help kids. It’s really not about me or any award, it’s about continuing the cycle of success.”
Advice for athletes from Murphy is to stay in perspective and give back as much as you receive.
“Work as hard as you can, dream big, but realize at some point no matter how good you are, your playing days are over,” Murphy said. “The experiences and relationships that you make along the way, take that and turn it into something positive.”
Serving her sixth year on the Board of Education, Murphy said this is her chance to give back for the people who believed in her and encouraged her to be her best.
“For every Ginny Murphy back in the ’80s, there’s a 2017 kid who’s looking for that person to connect with them,” Murphy said. “It’s my hope that others will look at me and find that in their heart to try and step up and help kids, or just do something to make the world a better place.”
