John 'Curtis' Murphy was an Irish sportsman. He played

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

with his local club Blackrock and with the

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

senior inter-county team in the 1880s and 1890s. Murphy captained Cork to All-Ireland victory in 1893.

Playing career

Club

Murphy played his club

with the famous Blackrock club in

and enjoyed success. He won his first senior county title in 1887 as ‘the Rockies’ captured the very first Cork county title. Murphy added further county titles to his collection in 1889 and 1891. Blackrock quickly became the standard-bearers in the county and Murphy had further county victories with the famous club in 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897 and 1898.

Inter-county

Blackrock’s victory in the county championship in 1893 allowed them to represent

in the inter-county series. For the second year in-a-row the Cork inter-county team contained a mix of players, including Murphy who, as a Blackrock player, was appointed captain. That year Cork reached the Munster final where Limerick provided the opposition. On that occasion Cork retained their provincial title with a remarkable 5-3 to 0-0 victory, giving Murphy his first, and only,

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

title. The subsequent All-Ireland final pitted Cork against

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

. It was the very first meeting of these two great rivals in the history of the championship. The game was fixed for Ashtown, however, upon arrival both teams refused to play there as somebody had neglected to mow the grass. After a long delay the goalposts were uprooted and both teams and their supporters headed to the Phoenix Park where the game took place after a delay. The game itself turned into a rout as Cork score 6-8 to Kilkenny’s 0-2. It was Cork’s second All-Ireland title in-a-row and it was Murphy’s only one. {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, John Year of birth missing Year of death missing Blackrock National Hurling Club hurlers Cork inter-county hurlers All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship winners