By Gary Braham 1-23-01
I had the chance to meet with Colgate Athletic Director, Mark Murphy today to begin an interview series. I am hoping to present a complete picture of what Colgate athletics is all about, from the athletes, to the coaches and administration.
Mark Murphy was a former student at Colgate, graduating in 1976. While here, he played baseball, basketball, and football. It was his prowless at football, that earned him a spot on the Washinton Reskins, and he helped his team win a Superbowl ring in the early 80's. He rejoined his alma mater in 1992, and has served as our athletic director since then.
The first topic to come up, was on how Colgate has changed over the years. And how expectations placed on student atheltes has changed as well. "I think it's that there's more emphasis on year round participation in your sport now" He also talked about how as the athletes have gotten better, and spend more time on athletics, there are not as many people who play more than one sport at a strong division 1 level. Mr. Murphy also believes that Colgate is a lot more competitive academically, and that it is harder to get into the school now then it was back in his time here.
The conversation shifted to what Colgate looks for in a student athlete. Whats the ideal student athelte at Colgate in terms of academics and athletics? "..somebody who has excelled in both in high school, someone who is well rounded, and has been a leader of several programs. One of the things we like to say is that you have to be very disiplined and well organized, and you have to be ready to challenge yourself." It's no secret that the student athlete experience here is different than you will find at other schools. The recruits we do get, know this coming in, and want to be a part of a small school that takes on the bigger schools at a high level of athletics, but they also expect, and are required, to get a high level education. When asked what separates the student atheltes at Colgate from other schools, Mark Murphy admitted that you wern't expected to not spend as much time on athletics as some other schools in the country, but everyone was expected to be a good student. In the book "The Last Amatuers" John Feinstein makes note of the fact, that when he was following one of the "Big Time D-1" basketball teams, and 1 player brought his books on an away trip, he gets yelled at by his coach for quite a while. But at Colgate, as well as the rest of the Patriot League, every student brings thier homework on the road. The committment to academics makes the Patiot League unique, and Colgate's athletic and academic philosophy, as well as our strong tradition of the underdog that won, has won over many student athletes and fans.
I wanted to know a little bit more about recruiting. Being a small school in upstate NY, where do we find our recruits? I was somewhat surprised to find out that we do activly recruit quite a bit, and that often it is the coach who initiates contact with the potential student athelte. Many student athletes contact Colgate first, and they will be given the information they need or scouted. But Colgate is very honest on the level of ability both on the field and in the classroom if you want to be a student here. In one of his shortest answer of the interview, when I asked Mr. Murphy what sort of student athlete should not bother applying to Colgate, he simply said "One who doesn't take thier academic work seriously."
The Patriot League is a unique place. Mark Murphy said that there was currently no league in division 1 that would be as good a fit as we have right now. But while the academic philospohies are simmilar, the issue of athletic scholarships is a major concern, and one that the AD said needs to be closley monitored. Next year, American University will join the league, they are a full scholarship school. Holy Cross offers full basketball scholarships, Lehigh offers partial, and other schools, like Bucknell and Lafayette, have thought about adding these scholarships to make thier basketball teams more competitive. Murphy does not want to see a repeat of what happened from 1986-1991, when Holy Cross was the only school in the league to offer scholarships in football. During that time, they were 26-1. "That wasn't good for the league, it wasn't good for anybody." In another statement I found surprising, but I had not thought about much, was when Mr. Murphy brought up the fact that the league began this shift when Army and Navy entered the league. These academies are full sholarship to anyone who can get in, but are typically a whole different type of experience from just about any other college. Mr. Murphy restated that while he does not know what direction the league is heading in, he emphasized that Colgate is committed to remaining competitive at the D-1 level, and that as far as he knew, adding athletic scholarships was not an option for Colgate. I pressed him a bit further on this line, asking what Colgate would do if the other schools in the league started to add even more scholarships, and Colgate began to drop towards the bottom of the league. While this was a tough question, one with no easy answer, especially when that event is only a possiblity in the future, but Mr. Murphy maintained that there were other ways to attract student athletes to campus, such as the quality of education, the atmosphere on campus were two he named. We do have financial aid scholarships, which could put us on equal ground with some of the lower income family recruits. He also stressed the importance of hiring and retaining quality coaches if a situation like that arose.
Moving on to our current teams, we discussed the fact that most of our teams finished lower than predicted in the fall, and our winter sports have not been on pace to finish where they were predicted either. Mr. Murphy pointed out that we did still finish second in the Presidents Cup race, but he seemed as dissapointed as I was that we did not have any championship teams in the fall. I asked if there was any explaination, and he did not think this was a part of any trend, and he rejected the idea that student atheltes were getting more engrossed in thier studies, or distracted by campus events. He believes this is just part of a cycle, and that last years teams were really just particularly strong. He mentioned that some teams lost a lot of key players and leaders, and that the challenge now was to "try to get players who are quality back into the program." He also thinks that the mens basketball team is better than last years, but that the league has become a lot more competitive. We moved on to discuss the strong spring we are expecting, but Mr. Murphy was guarded against getting those Presidents Cup's hopes up. "It's really hard for us to ever win that, primarily because we have two major sports that are not a part of the Patriot League, mens and womens ice hockey, and where we end up losing points is cross country, track and field, and swimming and diving, thats 8 sports..."I asked him if that was due to recruiting, but he replied that is was because we don't emplasize those as much as other sports, and we don't put the resources in them. He wants all the teams to do well, but he maintains that there are some sports that get precedence over others, and that doing well in them is a priority first. Later on, he would talk about the mood on campus when the hockey team was doing well last year, or when the basketball team used to be a strong contender for the league title.
That turned into a conversation on the atmosphere at games. He was realistic about the fact that the other students have many activities and studies of thier own to attend to, but the promotions department works hard to create an atmosphere where students can have fun at games and support thier classmates. One of the advantages of a small school is that chances are, you know someone on each team.
The topic turned to the future of Colgate athletics. And again, the need to monitor and stay on top of the scholarship issue came up. But the single most exciting event that came to mind for Mark Murphy was the fact that the womens ice hockey team will be going to division 1 next year. These first few years are going to be very interesting and exciting. He also brought up the fact that they were hoping to develope the womens sports program even more, and could possibly be adding another female sport in the near future. He didn't have any sports immediatly in mind, but they were still trying to determine where the interest is greatest.
And as promised, I asked him if there was any chance that Starr rink would be remodeled in the near future, to put any rumors or specualtion to rest. He said there were a number of projects there were looking at, and that they need to renovate anyway to add more locker rooms and coaches offices. But as far as the interior of the arena itself, the only item of renovation he mentioned was to remodel the bleachers behind the visitors goal, and possibly add some more seating.
The interview ended, as will part 1 of my look at Colgate athletics from the inside out. While preparing for this interview, as well as during and after, it's hard not to find a new faith that Colgate athletics will retain its unique nitch in the future as long as there are people who continue to fall in love with the University and it's athletic program like I did 2 and a half years ago, and Mark Murphy did in the mid 70's and again in the early 90's. There is something special about it, and while the challenges change, and get tougher, Colgate continues to rise to the challenge in the true Colgate spirit. The secret is no secret, it's hard work. The athletic staff puts in long hours to make the program a success, there are not many off days. The students who decide to come to Colgate are rarely dissapointed, and almost always finds that thier hard work on and off the field will pay off, both during thier few short years in the Chenango valley, and afterwards. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for more interviews with coaches, and the athletes themselves.
Return to the Articles page,
view the interview word for word HERE