Mary Ellen Murphy (born December 12, 1957) is a basketball analyst who calls college and WNBA games 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 ...

, BTN, and Pac-12 Network and select high school games for Comcast SportsNet California and

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquar ...

. She has also worked with FSN.

Early life

Murphy was born and raised in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. She kept to her Chicago roots and attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

from 1977 to 1980, acting as a two-year captain for the women's basketball team. During her senior season, Murphy was a finalist for the Wade Trophy as one of the top players in the nation.

Coaching career

After graduating from college, Murphy served as a student graduate assistant at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

for three seasons while earning a master's degree in business administration. She then moved to Notre Dame as an assistant coach for two year. Murphy was hired as head coach at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1986. In 1992 she led the Badgers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance, compiling a 20-9 overall record and a 13-5 conference record in the Big Ten. Over eight seasons Murphy compiled an 87-135 record at Wisconsin. Her time at Wisconsin was not without controversy. At least one player sued Murphy claiming she had caused her emotional harm and caused her to leave the team. The charges were eventually dropped by the courts. After leaving Wisconsin, Murphy became the head coach at

Cal State Hayward California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 post ...

from 1995 to 1996. Murphy left college coaching to become the first head coach and the general manager of the WNBA's

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Mona ...

in 1997. Murphy would coach the team for the first 15 games, compiling a 5-10 record, before being fired in the midst of a 5-game losing streak that dropped the Monarchs from first to third in their division.

Broadcasting

Upon being let go by the Monarchs, Murphy was hired by

Brian Donlon Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word mea ...

Lifetime Television's
vice president of sports and executive producer, to be part of its WNBA broadcast team along with Michele Tafoya and Reggie Miller. Murphy started with her own halftime feature, "Murphy's Law" before joining Miller and Tafoya as a game analyst. When Lifetime ended its WNBA broadcasts in 1999, Murphy moved to ESPN for women's NCAA tournament games and WNBA broadcasts while FOX would bring her on board to call the Pac-12 women's games on FSN in the early 2000s. Others would follow suit. In 2007 Murphy was hired as one of BTN's announcers, and in 2012 she was hired as an analyst for Pac-12 Network. Today Murphy continues to act as an analyst for first round NCAA women's tournament games on ESPN, girls high school championship broadcasts on Comcast, Monday Night's BTN game of the week, select Pac-12 games, and as color analyst for the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

Spectrum SportsNet Spectrum Sports (abbreviated as SPECTSN), also known under the corporate names Spectrum Networks, or Charter Sports Regional Networks, is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Mary 1957 births Basketball coaches from Illinois College basketball announcers in the United States Living people Sacramento Monarchs coaches Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association media American women's basketball coaches Women's National Basketball Association announcers