Charles ‘Stretch’ Murphy
A true basketball pioneer who gave Marion athletic teams their identity, Murphy was the linchpin for the Giants’ first state championship team in 1926 and then starred for Purdue University and early professional teams. Murphy became one of the early inductees into the Naismith national and Indiana basketball hall of fames.
In the 1920s, the 6-foot-7 Murphy was considered a “Giant” and the nickname has stuck for Marion athletic teams to this day. He was one of the first multi-skilled big men and dominated play in the era of the center jump after every basket. Legendary coach John Wooden, who was Murphy’s teammate at Purdue, considered Murphy one of the greatest centers he had ever seen, on a par with Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The Giants defeated Wooden-led Martinsville for the state title with Murphy patrolling the middle. Murphy played three years for the Giants and scored 704 points, and he also helped the Giants advance to the final eight of the 1925 state tournament.
At Purdue, Murphy was the main cog in Boilermakers coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert’s revolutionary running game, and he earned all-Big Ten and All-American honors three straight years. Murphy set the conference’s scoring record in 1929 and led the Boilers to a mythical national championship in 1930.
The NBA did not exist for another 16 years when Murphy graduated from Purdue, and he would play in the regional American Basketball League and for the independent Indianapolis Kautskys, earning $50 a game. Murphy coached high school basketball at Edinburgh and Winchester while playing professionally and then began a long association with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Murphy died in 1992 at age 85.