Calvin Murphy, a 5′ 9″ Package of Highly Potent Dynamite

They were known as the “3 M’s,” a trio of guards who scored prolifically (before the three-point line) in the 1968, 1969 and 1970 college basketball seasons.

I will start with Rick Mount of Purdue. In 72 games for the Boilermakers, he racked up 2,323 points, a 32.3-point average. However, collecting just 2.9 rebounds per game is, I believe, proof that he did not mix it up with the big boys too much. Mount, who had been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school phenom, got his team to the 1969 NCAA title game; they lost 92-72 to UCLA. He signed what was then considered a big contract with the Indiana Pacers of the ABA, but Mount’s lack of foot speed made him a liability, and that is why some critics regarded him as the most expensive sub since the Nautilus. To be fair, he did make solid contributions to the Pacers winning the 1972 ABA title and the Kentucky Colonels and Utah Stars reaching league’s championship series in ’73 and ’74, respectively. A dislocated shoulder spelled the end to his five-year pro career.

Next up is by far the most famous of the three, LSU’s Pete Maravich. Since I have already written two full-length articles about him (https://richardpennington.com/…/four-years-late-to-see…/ and https://richardpennington.com/…/the-pistols-record…/…), I will just state the most obvious facts: he averaged 44.2 points per game for the Tigers (coached by his father, Press) and was 1970 player of the year since UCLA’s Lew Alcindor had graduated the year before. Maravich, who averaged 6.4 ribbies in those three seasons, shot a lower percentage than did Mount, but the latter was mostly a stand-and-shoot guy, whereas the former was infinitely more creative. LSU did not reach the NCAAs during his college career, although he took his team three games deep into the 1970 National Invitational Tournament. In a 10-year career with the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans/Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics, he never won a championship. The Pistol reached his pro scoring peak in 1977 when he averaged 31.1 points—best in the league—pouring in 68 one night against the New York Knicks.

And that brings us to Calvin Murphy of Niagara. Vertically challenged at 5′ 9″, he was way shorter than Mount (6′ 4″) and Maravich (6′ 5″), so he might be considered—forgive me for saying it, Pete—the most impressive of the three. Pound for pound and inch for inch, Murphy was among the best to ever play the game. He grew up in a single-parent home in Norwalk, Connecticut and was a victim of childhood sexual abuse. Murphy averaged 40 points per game at Norwalk High School and was named MVP of the 1966 Dapper Dan Roundball Classic in Pittsburgh in which he rang the bell for 37 points. He then received more than 200 scholarship offers, his height notwithstanding. He claimed to have picked this small Catholic school, run by the Vincentian Fathers, because the coach, Jim Maloney, convinced the Buffalo Bills to let him twirl his baton at halftime of the team’s home games. (Murphy had won a national twirling championship as an eighth grader in 1963 and was still at it 15 years later, well into his pro hoops career.)

Let’s not be too hasty in questioning Murphy’s decision about where to matriculate. Not only was Niagara a fine academic institution, but it had an impressive hoops lineage. Larry Costello, Hubie Brown and Frank Layden played there (Layden was the Purple Eagles’ coach from 1968 to 1975) and went on to great things in the NBA and ABA. One of my favorite players with the Dallas Chaparrals, Manny Leaks, had played center for Niagara during Murphy’s sophomore season.

A tightly muscled blur of speed, an excellent leaper, a stout defensive player and the possessor of a firm “handle,” he scored in bunches—and yet he did not hog the ball. Murphy was an adept passer who was happy to throw it to a teammate and let him convert. I will add that he was one of the best free-throw shooters in basketball history. Truly, his game had no weakness.

One might argue that his being a member of the Purple Eagles, who called 2,400-seat Niagara University Student Center their on-campus home (bigger games were held at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium) and regularly playing such teams as Iona, Canisius, Xavier, St. Peter’s and Fairfield do not constitute big-time college hoops. True enough, but Maravich was in the mostly pre-integration Southeastern Conference. Of the 3M’s, Mount (Big Ten) undoubtedly faced the best competition.

Niagara went 12-12 in Murphy’s sophomore season (38.2 points per game), followed by 11-13 (32.4) and 22-7 (29.4). Opposing defenses, as you might expect, knew that to beat NU, they had to hold No. 23 somewhat in check. The 1970 Purple Eagles got an at-large bid to the NCAAs and proceeded to beat Pennsylvania before losing to Villanova—the last game in Murphy’s illustrious college career.

He was a second-round pick in both leagues, opting for the San Diego (soon to be Houston) Rockets of the NBA. Some may have doubted that such a short guy could succeed at that level, but not Murphy. He made the 1971 all-rookie team, played 13 seasons for the Rockets and helped them reach the NBA finals in 1981. An iron man of sorts, Murphy never played fewer than 76 games until his last two years. He averaged 17.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game.

Most enforcers—in basketball, baseball, football and hockey—are big men. This again points to what a unique player Calvin Murphy was. His reputation as the original bad-ass began at Niagara, carrying straight through to his pro years. Said to have engaged in somewhere between 11 and 17 fights as a Rocket, he was utterly fearless. In a 1976 game against the Boston Celtics, Sidney Wicks (11 inches taller and 60 pounds heavier) threw a forearm to which Murphy took offense. He proceeded to bash the Celtics forward again and again. Wicks kept backpedaling and trying to ward off punches from Murphy. When it was all over, the Boston trainer came out on the court with a towel to absorb the blood gushing from Wicks’ face. “I made him behave,” Murphy later said with a slight smile. “He didn’t want to do that anymore.”

With all due respect to Mount and Maravich, they could never under any circumstances have been anybody’s enforcer. If anything, they would have needed the protection of an enforcer.

He retired after the 1983 season, although his skills had not eroded much. Murphy has been honored in a variety of ways. He was inducted into the NU Hall of Honor in 1975, his number (23) was retired by the Rockets in 1984, and he entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 (Maravich was inducted in 1987 and Mount in 2017). He has remained with the Houston franchise as a radio and TV broadcaster, assistant coach and all-around provider of bonhomie.

Murphy has stayed in the limelight since then for two reasons, one happy and one much less so. He made the acquaintance of Hadi El-Banna, a high-end clothier who ran a shop in Houston’s West Oaks Mall. El-Banna brought Murphy—whose wardrobe when he first went to Niagara University consisted of two pairs of pants, three white shirts, a red-and-black sweater with patched sleeves and a gray blazer—into his shop and fitted him with one outrageous suit after another. As befitting his personality, Murphy’s suits feature a wide array of bright colors such as pink, magenta and gold, every assortment of eye-catching patterns—snakeskin print, for example—and, of course, custom tailoring. Murphy says this has helped him redefine his post-playing career. When he walks into Toyota Center (where the Rockets’ home games are held), Madison Square Garden or any other NBA arena, the man who calls himself “Mr. Rocket” enjoys being noticed. It is now not uncommon for Houston-area high school boys to visit shops like that of Hadi El-Banna and ask for “the Calvin Murphy look” a few weeks before the prom.

Surely the worst episode of his life came in 2004 when five of his daughters accused him of aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child. Murphy hotly denied it and hired attorney Rusty Hardin (well known for having defended other jocks-in-trouble like Scottie Pippen, Roger Clemens, Warren Moon, Wade Boggs, Rafer Alston and Steve Francis). Hardin told jurors a convoluted story wherein the women’s grandmother had accused Murphy of wrongfully claiming to be the beneficiary of some $52,000 in death benefits belonging to the mother—the grandmother’s daughter, are you following this?—who had died in a car wreck in 1996. Hardin insisted that the assertion that his client had had improper doings with his five daughters was fallacious, mendacious and wholly erroneous. Although some embarrassing information came out in court, including the fact that Murphy had no fewer than 14 children with nine different women, he was acquitted after just two hours of jury deliberation. He went right back to his job with the Houston Rockets, for whom he has now been on the payroll for 57 years.

Rick Mount of Purdue in 1969 NCAA title game; coming at him is Lew Alcindor…

LSU’s Pete Maravich…

Calvin Murphy twirling his baton at halftime of a Buffalo Bills football game…

Up in the air, Murphy takes it to the hoop…

With Frank Layden, the coach his last three years at Niagara…

On the cover of SI during his rookie year…

Murphy blasts the Celtics’ Sidney Wicks as teammates Mike Newlin and John Johnson hasten to restrain him…