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articles by Mike Maloney
It’s been nearly 15 years, but Brian Murphy still
remembers.
“I wrote this story about a UCLA cross-country runner
named Polly Plumber,” he said as he found comfort in another
sip of his coffee, black with two sugars. The Saturday morning
crowd at the coffee shop buzzes around him, but it’s clear
Murphy has been transported elsewhere. Polly Plumber is running
feverishly through his mind.
“Was it any good?” I asked, prompting Murphy to
break into a wide smile.
“It was the worst!” he said with a laugh. “I
was just gushing about her: “˜She’s so heroic, so
courageous.’ And she was just this girl that runs four miles
around a hill.”
Murphy’s days of covering the Polly Plumbers of the world
at UCLA have long been over. Nowadays, he spends his time chasing
Tiger Woods around the world as the San Francisco Chronicle’s
national golf writer. The 34-year-old Murphy also pens
“The Weekly Water Cooler,” a column that appears every
Monday on ESPN.com’s Page 2.
But Murphy is not your stereotypical sports writer; he’s
not the balding, bitter old man always harping on how much money
athletes are making these days.
“I knew sports writing didn’t pay great and it still
doesn’t,” he said. “But I made that decision a
long time ago, I’m not going to live in the lap of luxury.
But you know, I have clothes on my back, I drove a used car down
here today.”
And the fact is the business has been pretty good to him. He
even met his wife while covering Super Bowl XXIX in Miami.
“Murph,” as he’s known to all his friends, was
clearly in his element this morning, sitting, surrounded by
“his people” in the infamous Book Depot of his
hometown, Mill Valley, Calif. A grin dominates his round face
despite the early-morning wake up call.
“Did you always want to be a sportswriter?” I
asked.
“No, I was also really into politics,” Murph
replied. “I don’t know why, but I always wanted to be
George Will, this big political columnist who moved to D.C. In
fact, I remember writing my essay to get into UCLA saying that I
was going to be the editor in chief of Time Magazine.”
His high aspirations obviously won points with the admissions
board, as Murphy was accepted and spent the next four years of his
life in Westwood. Looking to make his mark, he quickly joined the
Daily Bruin. But as fate would have it, it was the sports
department ““ not the front-page ““ that came
calling.
“When I went to the orientation meeting, the fact was they
had immediate openings in the sports department,” he
recalled. “So, I was thinking, “˜What, am I going to
wait in line to become a political columnist, or am I going to
start right away with something I already love?'”
Murphy spent the next two years writing for the sports section,
churning out game recaps and more profiles like his epic Polly
Plumber feature. In his junior year, he ditched the Bruin to intern
at the Los Angeles Times, and the impact of the experience has
stayed with him for the long haul.
“I spent six months there and it was incredible,” he
beamed. “I’d write these stories and the editor
would pull up a chair next to me and just shred them. He’d
take that Polly Plumber profile and absolutely destroy it. He was a
really tough editor, still one of the best I’ve ever had. In
fact, I’m still trying to do right by him to this
day.”
With his L.A. Times pedigree, Murphy swooped back into the Daily
Bruin offices his senior year and was named sports editor. The
1988-89 Bruins’ sports campaign was a memorable ride for
him.
“UCLA made the tournament (in men’s hoops) that year
for the first time in forever,” he said. “That was Jim
Harrick’s first season as coach. Before that, I had to live
through the Walt Hazzard years. Brutal.”
“And it was (Troy) Aikman’s senior year, the
(football) team was ranked No. 1 during the season,” he
continued. “They had a chance to beat ‘SC to go to the
Rose Bowl and play for the National Championship, but Rodney Peete
(and the Trojans) beat them.”
While sports writing had obviously gotten under his skin, like
most college seniors, Murphy still wasn’t certain what he
wanted to do with the rest of his life. That is, until his dad told
him to listen to Larry King’s old national radio show one
night over Christmas break.
“His guest was Leonard Shapiro, the sports editor of the
Washington Post,” Murphy explained. “So I called with
my heart racing and Larry finally says, (impersonating King)
“˜Mill Valley, California”¦hello!'”
“I was so nervous, but I managed to say, “˜Yeah hi, I
just wanted to ask Mr. Shapiro: I’m a senior at a major
college, and I work at the daily newspaper. And I wanted to know
his opinion of sports writing as a career. I’ll take my
answer off the air.’ And Lenny Shapiro said two words
I’ll never forget, “˜As far as sports writing as a
career: beats work.'”
“So that was the mantra I adopted,” Murphy said with
a grin, “”˜Beats work.'”
Mantra in mind, Murphy has never looked back. After two and a
half more years at the L.A. Times straight out of school, Murphy
took a year off to do some soul-searching and Guinness-schlepping
in a pub in Ireland. Upon his return to the States, he started out
at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he covered the San
Francisco 49ers. In 1999, he moved to the San Francisco Examiner to
cover the Oakland A’s. And finally, he landed at the mecca of
Northern California newspapers ““The Chronicle ““ where
he now covers the PGA Tour.
After 90 minutes of spinning yarns and offering cautionary tales
about life in the business, Murphy takes a deep breath.
“Is that all you got for me?” he asked, smile
stretching ear to ear.
“That’s it, man,” I replied. “It’s
just too bad Polly Plumber couldn’t join us.”
We shared a laugh.
Apparently, she was off running four miles around a hill
somewhere.