After 30 years with Harvard football, Coach Tim Murphy will finally be stepping down as head coach. Murphy led the team to 10 Ivy League championships with only one losing season in this century. While it is easy to measure Murphy’s success through game statistics, it is difficult to quantify the lasting impact he will have on this program and the players, both past and present.
Murphy’s love of the game started, in true American fashion, playing sand-lot football. “No adults, no fancy field, but a lot of fun,” he said in an interview with the Independent. This love grew through the years, along with Murphy’s skill. As a junior in high school, he was confronted by his high school football coach John Montosi and his basketball coach Dick Arieta in the hallway. “I think today they would call it an intervention.” When asked what he was doing after high school, Murphy told them “I don’t know, I will probably join the Marines,” but his coaches had a different plan. “Shut the hell up son, you’re going to college,” they said. With their help, Murphy became the first member of his family to go to college and was able to secure a partial scholarship at Division II Springfield College.
At Springfield, Murphy excelled both on and off the field. Murphy commented that Howard Vandersea’s appointment as head coach at Springfield was “a godsend” because he was a pivotal mentor for Murphy. “He helped me get a full scholarship and he encouraged me…to stay and get a master’s degree.” Murphy stayed to use his fifth year of eligibility; his final season was the first year the NCAA allowed athletes to play college football while in graduate school, allowing him to compete for Springfield once more. After finishing his degree, Vandersea also aided Murphy in securing a coaching position at Brown University, where Vandersea had formerly coached.
Brown was only the start for Murphy. He served as part of the football staff at Lafayette College and Boston University before becoming offensive coordinator at the University of Maine, all by the time he was 28. His love of education continued to prevail, as he took free classes at Lafayette, Boston University, and Maine. Murphy was ultimately preparing to hand in his resignation at Maine to attend the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. At the same time, he was offered the opportunity to become head coach of the University of Maine’s football program. Murphy recalls, “I was very conflicted on what to do because I had worked so hard to get into a top MBA program. I said, ‘Alright, I’ll do this for a year, get it out of my system, and go to grad school.’ And that was 37 years ago.”
Two years later, Murphy was offered the position to become the youngest head coach at a major school in Division I football at age 30 for the University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati’s program had not had a winning season in a decade. According to Murphy, they had a reduced roster of 53 players on scholarship due to NCAA infractions instead of the typical 85 at the time. The program rebounded and was ranked in the top 25 by the time he left to take over at Harvard in 1994.
Harvard Football presented another opportunity for Murphy to fundamentally change a program. In his first month, Murphy found himself on a plane to upstate New York in an attempt to convince high school senior Isaiah Kacyvenski ’99 to decommit from Syracuse and come to Harvard. Kacyvenski had a tumultuous childhood—he grew up in poverty and was living by himself following the death of his mother when Murphy walked through his front door and asked him to come on a visit. In the end, Kacyvenski chose Harvard and went on to become a three-time First-Team All-Ivy, an All-American, an NFL draft pick, and a captain of the Seattle Seahawks. His son, Isaiah Kacyvenski Jr. ’27, is currently on the Harvard football team and a part of the only father-son duo Murphy has coached in his entire career.
Kacyvenski Jr., like his father, did not always feel like Harvard was the obvious choice. However, he witnessed the lasting impact this program and Murphy had on every player from a young age. “The Harvard Football family is a very special group. Growing up knowing the power it had, I would see my dad always conversing with his old teammates and roommates daily. It was validation to prove that the brotherhood really lasts forever,” Kacyvenski Jr. said. This brotherhood was built through Murphy hand-picking players he believed would help build and strengthen the team.
The universal commitment across Harvard’s football program is a result of Murphy’s coaching methodology and the kind of player he recruits. In building a culture that fosters success both on and off the field, he enlists a specific type of character. As Murphy put it, “you’ve got to find high character kids who are tough and resilient, or driven in a positive way. That’s the only way they’re going to transcend whatever limitations they have athletically and physically.” The character of the players makes the character of the team, a sentiment that Kacyvenski Jr. learned from his father’s experience and now his own with Harvard Football. “The same aspects still ring true; every player has to have 100% commitment to the program, staff, and teammates,” he said.
In his departure, Murphy’s legacy of success will leave huge shoes for any successor to fill. Murphy explained that he hopes all his players will remember his passion for the team. “More than anything, I hope they know I really cared [and] I did everything in my power to help them reach their full potential on and off the field.” For players like Isaiah Kacyvenski, and now his son, Murphy’s guidance was pivotal in their lives. Aside from being extremely grateful for everything Murphy has done for his family and Harvard Football, Kacyvenski Jr. believes that “Harvard values leadership and [Murphy] embodies that in every way.”
Kate Oliver ’26 (koliver@college.harvard.edu) was a novice flag football player in middle school.