Former Harvard head coach Tim Murphy has been named as the new head coach at Penn State, taking over the combined men’s and women’s programs from John Hargis, who left to be the associate head coach at his alma mater Auburn.
Murphy had been the head coach of the Harvard men for the last 15 years, including coaching Olympic open water swimmer Alex Meyer. Murphy was named the head coach of the 2012 United States men’s open water team for the Olympics.
Before going to Harvard, Murphy was the head coach of the Wilton YMCA Wahoos for 13 years as they won 7 YMCA National Championships.
The Penn State men and women, while seemingly loaded with talent, have come up a bit short of expectations the last few years. The men were 8th at Big Tens in 2013, while the women were 3rd.
The women’s team placed 29th at NCAA’s, and will return sophomore Alyson Ackman, who was the Big Ten Champion in the 200 free last year as a freshman. The men’s program returns most of their 20th-place team from NCAA’s, including All-Americans Nate Savoy and Sean Grier, and will hope to regain the services of Shane Ryan, who had to sit out during championship season last year.
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We’ll have to agree to disagree on the purpose of the NAT. I will say it again, as a varsity facility, paid for and staffed by athletics money, their should be a hierarchy of preference given to athletics first, and considering the state of the facility and the competition in the Big Ten, the swimming teams should be given ABOVE and BEYOND what they ask for, if nothing else than for solace for having to swim in dreadful conditions in one of the worst facilities in all of Division I. See Jim and PSU Erie comment for further enlightenment…
That Penn State….THE Pennsylvania State University, with all her resources and all the football money that… Read more »
Was Hargis’s departure a question of money, lack of a new pool, or a personality problem? It seems strange he would leave a head coaching position to take an assistant spot under a coach who is younger than he.
Julio – I wouldn’t propose to speak for coach Hargis, but an associate head coach position at Auburn is probably a better position than almost any head coaching job in the country. It’s a matter of public record, so consider that Frank Bradley was getting paychecks of over $10,000 a month, with what appeared to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a $10k bonus, or some other lump payout in April every year.
Going back to his alma mater and making more than 99.99% of the swim coaches in the country is not a bad deal…again, can’t say that he went for the money or his alma mater or anything else. But those conditions certainly didn’t deter him from taking… Read more »
i dont know who the excuse minded fool is that thinks somehow the aquatics director and other factors conspired against the success of the swim program. Bottom line is look at the resumes of “non-success” by the swim staff. They couldn’t coach then and can’t coach now. Own the fact that the swim staff are hacks.
You want to get into details? I have plenty. Also….women third in the Big Ten last year = not coaching? How about going further back and the four Big Ten titles won in that facility? Clearly your history is lacking, kind sir!
So, from what you are saying, was there a power struggle between the head coach and the aquatics director last year?
Penn State Behrend (PSU branch campus) has a better indoor pool than Penn State Main Campus. Its amazing that PSU can still get so many of the top PA recruits with such terrible facilities.
Aaron Workman is a quality coach and a classy individual. However, I agree with NBD. A program like PSU should have a head coach with previous head coaching experience. Coach Murphy appears to be a great hire.
Why did Coach Murphy leave Harvard? No dirt to uncover…. First of all a ultra-competitive admissions process that puts extreme limits on who/how many swimmers can be recruited. Secondly, the Ivy League has stricter parameters on training their student-athletes than most D-1 conferences. Third, the cost of living in the Greater Boston area is very high – Coach Murphy was commuting about 35 miles each way daily – and that wears on you over 15 years (especially as your children age and you are spending so much time coaching and commuting).
Finally, most importantly, Tim is going back to his home state where he began his career as an athlete and was educated. He was on the very short list… Read more »
Touché
Does anyone know why Coach Tim Murphy left Harvard? I imagine he’s getting paid more at PSU, but Harvard has a nicer 50 meter pool. Was it about getting swimmers into Harvard, cost of living etc?
If it were me a higher salary, lower cost of living and a great potential to recruit high level athletes being able to offer scholarships and use more “inclusive” academic standards. With that being said Penn State is no community college. It is a great academic institution.
In any case it’s a huge upgrade from that bozo that was there before. Finally a decent option for east coast swimmers wanting to stay a little closer to home (and not Harvard material). Between this hire and UVA we can keep some talent closer to home without having to sell our kids a bag of “goods”.