Pflugerville's Mike Murphy Hits 500

Being an old baseball guy, the number 500 was a magical figure which guaranteed you entry to the Hall of Fame if you had that number of home runs on your resume'.  On Tuesday evening Pflugerville Coach Mike Murphy notched his 500th coaching win in a career that has spanned 20 plus years. Beginning at Austin Travis, then on to Florence and of course has spent the bulk of his career (more than a decade) installing high octane offenses at Pflugerville. 

Tuesday's win was an uncharacteristically low scoring affair, a 59-47 win over Round Rock High.  What made it additionally  in addition to it being #500 is that on the opposing bench as Assistant Varsity Coach was his son Brent Murphy.  At game's end The Rock staff made a classy gesture and gave "Murph" the game ball.

Murph's had some pretty fair players over the years including Brandon Thomas (Texas State-Japan), Bryan Beasley (Rice), Adhar Mayen (Hawaii), Osas Ebomwonyi (Lamar), Jonathan Garza (Arkansas-Fort Smith) and his current leader Deon Mitchell (Northern Iowa).  I'm sure Murph gives these kids a great deal of credit. On the flip side, it takes a special personality to develop the chemistry that talented kids need to achieve team goals.

I've known Coach Murphy for 12 years or so.  I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone and he loves his kids; both the players at Pflugerville and his two sons (Brent who played at UTEP) and Lance (who currently plays for UT-Tyler).  He's got an angel for a wife in Susan Murphy the long time track coach at Pflugerville.  I've played golf many a time with Murph, we've driven kids in a van to Las Vegas & slept on many a floor in a sleeping bag when I coached Lance on the travel basketball circuit.  He's a great friend and a wonderful human being who not surprisingly has won 500 games.  Congratulations!