Houston Sports - Calvin Murphy

Calvin Murphy

Born: May 9, 1948

Sport: Basketball (3-time All-American, All-Rookie, All-Star, Hall of Fame)

I hope you've enjoyed our time focused on the Olympics, but this week we return to basketball which is the most significant US sport currently enjoying a regular season.  Football has been in the news because players are getting released or traded, contracts reworked, and rosters otherwise prepared for the upcoming draft.  Baseball has entered spring training while also going through its once-every-four-year World Baseball Classic tournament.  Hockey...well, we've already covered the one guy I could come up with that was related to Houston.  The spotlight falls on someone who originally came to Houston along with his entire team, and he ended up becoming the shortest member of the Hall of Fame during his lengthy career.  And once he took off the uniform and sneakers Calvin Murphy stayed in town, becoming a regular and well-loved face of the team's TV broadcast crew.  Let's dive into his story.

The Summit, Calvin Murphy's home with the Houston Rockets during the 1970s

Calvin Murphy was born on Mother's Day and raised by his mom, Ina Miller, without the help of a father figure in the coastal town of Norwalk, Connecticut, just 30 minutes from New York City.  She had been athletic herself, playing basketball and twirling batons, and insisted upon teaching those skills to her children.  Calvin became adept at both alongside his seven sisters, winning a national twirling championship in 8th grade before becoming a 3-time All-State basketball player for Norwalk High School.  Miller was kept busy working long hours while raising all eight children by that point, and never even realized just how good her son had become until she overheard people talking on her bus ride to work about the talented kid on the high school team, at which point she decided she should make the time to go watch him play.  Murphy kept working both of his competitive skills and was invited to perform his baton act at the 1964 New York World's Fair while still in high school, but eventually basketball won out when during his senior season in 1966 he was voted as the nation's top player in the country by a national publication.  Scholarship offers came pouring in from over 230 colleges but Murphy made the decision to attend Niagara University.  After one year of playing on the school's freshman team and averaging nearly 50 points per game, Murphy moved up to the top tier of competition where he was a 3-time consensus All-American.  At just 5' 9" he was tireless on both ends of the court, refusing to allow his lack of height to deter him as he scored over 33 points per game for his collegiate career, a mark set well before the 3-point line was adopted that still stands as the fourth-highest average of all time.  Not giving up on his baton twirling, however, Murphy found a way to perform at nearby Buffalo Bills AFL games during his first two years of college.  In 1970 Murphy married Vernetta Sykes, with whom he would have three children, and graduated with his BA degree.

Teams from both professional basketball leagues tried to draft Calvin Murphy in the 1970 draft, and he opted to play for the NBA's San Diego Rockets instead of the ABA's Pittsburgh Condors.  As the shortest player in the league, he still managed to score over 1,000 points and play his way onto the All-Rookie team, notably ahead of teammate and fellow rookie Rudy Tomjanovich who had been drafted 16 spots ahead of him.  In fact, Murphy reached the 1,000 point mark for 11 consecutive seasons while establishing himself as the feisty face of the franchise during their move away from California in favor of Houston.  He was well-known for his tenacious defense but despite consistency on both ends of the floor he was only chosen for the All-Star team once during his 13-year career.  Alongside teammates Rudy T and Moses Malone, Murphy helped navigate Houston to six playoff appearances over the course of eight years, including the franchise's first appearance in the NBA Finals during the 1980-81 season.  He was known as an enforcer, never backing down from a challenge and more than willing to defend himself or a teammate if a physical confrontation arose.  One of the fiery point guard's most impressive contributions came at the free throw line, however, where he was virtually automatic.  Murphy holds the third-highest FT percentage in NBA history at 89.2%, including the highest-ever mark for a season (95.8%), second-most seasons over 90% (5), and an NBA record for consecutive FT makes that stood for 13 seasons (78).  It wasn't just his game that was well-rounded, however, as he continued to make his mark off the court by winning the Texas State Men's Twirling Championship in 1977 and received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 1978 for his work with youth in the community.

After the conclusion of the 1983 season, Calvin Murphy retired from basketball after having played his entire career in a Rockets uniform and owning numerous franchise records.  The following year the team retired his number 23 and put that uniform in the rafters, where it currently remains among just five other members of the organization.  He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1993, and other honors include the Niagara University Hall of Honor (1975), the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame (1987), the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame (1993), the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (2006), the Metro Area Athletic Conference Honor Roll (2013), and the Houston Sports Hall of Fame (2023).  After being away from the Rockets for several years he returned in 1989 to act as a community service advisor and TV analyst, and then he spent three years as an assistant coach for the team under head coaches Don Chaney and Rudy Tomjanovich.  The Murphy family briefly had their dirty laundry brought into the public eye in 2004 with allegations that the former player had abused several of his daughters, and although he was cleared of all charges Calvin had his reputation damaged by the revelation that he had 14 children with nine women, only two of whom had been his wives at the time.  Fans chose to show grace and welcomed him back as a team ambassador, however, and Murphy was soon back in action as a team analyst and worker for the Clutch City Foundation.  He also runs the Texas Youth Academy, which focuses on supporting kids through sports, academics, and counseling.  Recently, Murphy has started writing a new chapter in his basketball story as he was named the head coach of Houston's 2025 expansion team, known as the Rig Hands, in the BIG3 3-on-3 league.

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