Jim Murray (born 1938 or 1939) is the co-founder of the Ronald McDonald House and a former

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

. A native of

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

, he is also president of Jim Murray Ltd, a sports promotion and marketing firm.

Early life and education

Murray was born into an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

family. He was raised in a

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Murray attended Our Mother of Sorrows Parish grade school and

West Philadelphia Catholic High School West Catholic Preparatory High School is a co-educational Catholic high school in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 45th and Chestnut Streets, the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia. ...

. He and his brother Francis W. "Fran" Murray were athletic. He graduated from

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Penns ...

in 1960.

Career

He began his career in sports administration with the

Tidewater Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesap ...

of baseball's

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

. After a tour of active duty with the

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...

Reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

, he returned to baseball as assistant general manager of the

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were Minor League Baseball teams based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. History Atlanta played its first ...

, an affiliate of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. In 1964, he left baseball to enter the restaurant business. He returned om 1966 to his alma mater,

, as its sports information director. In 1969, he joined the professional football team

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

staff and became the NFL team's administrative assistant two years later. In 1974, five years after joining the organization, Murray was named

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for the team. For more than nine years, Murray served as general manager which included significant improvement in the team, as evidenced by its appearances in playoff games and a Super Bowl. In 1976, he and owner Leonard Tose hired Dick Vermeil as

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

. Murray was fired after the 1982 season and succeeded by Tose's daughter, Susan Tose Fletcher.

Film and television

Murray's company has produced the local television show ''Eagles Cheers''. He appears in interviews on numerous

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as ...

Productions about the Philadelphia Eagles. Murray's nephew T. Patrick Murray (son of his brother Fran) is a filmmaker who produced '' The Last Game'', a football

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

Charity work

During his 14 years with the Eagles, Murray assumed leadership roles in a number of community projects. He helped start the successfu
Eagles Fly for Leukemia
campaign and co-founded with Dr. Audrey Evans the first Ronald McDonald House, located in Philadelphia. Murray persuaded many of his peers in the NFL to become involved in the unique Ronald McDonald House concept.

Awards

Murray has received numerous honors and awards, including: * Leonard Tose Award (2002), first awardee *

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

's Citizen of the Year Award (1999) * American Legion Distinguished Service Award (1992) * Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Philadelphia City All-Star Chapter (inducted 1992) * President Ronald Reagan's Medal for Volunteers of America (1987) * Bakers Club of Philadelphia's Bert Bell Man of the Year Award (1983) * Catholic Leadership Institute's Award for Outstanding Catholic Leadership (2005)

Personal life

Murray and his wife, Dianne, reside in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. They have five children and five grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Jim Sportspeople from Philadelphia American people of Irish descent American Roman Catholics Philadelphia Eagles executives National Football League general managers Villanova Wildcats football Living people 1930s births United States Marines Villanova University alumni United States Marine Corps reservists