February 27, 2002

La Salle University Student David Murphy Named College Sportswriter of the Year by Philadelphia Sportswriters Association

When David Murphy's grandmother gave him a subscription to Sports Illustrated for his birthday, she was giving him more than a gift. It was a path. Reading about sports gave Murphy the idea he'd like to write about sports, so the La Salle University sophomore has spent the last several years working at his craft, and recently received the College Sportswriter of the Year award from the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association.

"I was pretty excited" he said when he learned of the news. "I thought I had a chance. It's the first time a La Salle student has won it. It's a great honor."

Murphy, a communications major and sports editor of the University's weekly student newspaper The Collegian, won for a story he did on La Salle football coach Bill Manlove announcing his retirement.

After talking to the coach, Murphy went back to the Collegian's office and knocked out the 1,500-word article in about two hours. "It just flowed," he said. "Before I knew it, I was done."

In a story headlined, "Into the Sunset," Murphy wrote that following the last game of the season, "This particular Monday, however, the scene is slightly different. There are no play charts scattered across his desk. There are no recruiting files spread open on the shelves. The four cloth-covered partitions that section off his office from the rest of the football room are bare.

"After four years of athletic life, Manlove's office now resembles the deciduous trees that dot the campus in wintertime - gray and naked.

"As he sits in a chair behind the empty desk, the empty walls and the empty shelves staring down on his lanky form, a smile overtakes Manlove's face and brightens the otherwise plain room."

Murphy's been writing sports since junior high school. In his hometown of Cresco, Pennsylvania, he contributed to The Pocono Record, writing for a section aimed at teenagers. He's also been writing about school sports for The Norristown Times-Herald after he entered La Salle.

In high school, he started an internship with the Philadelphia Eagles that has continued into his college years, but had an inauspicious beginning.

He sent emails to Dave Spadaro, who works for the Philadelphia Eagles as Director of Website Development and Editor of the team's publication, Eagles Digest. Murphy asked if he could be an intern at the Eagles training camp in the summer. He kept sending the emails over and over until Spadaro finally agreed to meet with him. Murphy and his father drove from their then home in Cresco, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains area, to Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium for an appointment with Spadaro.

Spadaro got busy with something else and completely forgot about his appointment with Murphy. After two hours Spadaro remembered the appointment, and, to his surprise, Murphy (and his dad) were still there. "I admire persistence," says Spadaro, who then gave Murphy an internship in his office, where he contributes to the team's website, Eagles Digest and working with the press covering the team. "He's been very valuable," says Spadaro. "He's a strong writer."

This past NFL season Murphy went on several road trips (Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Arizona, New York) with the team, and was with the Eagles media crew up to its final game in St. Louis. Among his favorite moments from the Eagles' season "was probably the win in Chicago; the whole championship was an experience, and at the end of the Tampa Bay game, the fans were going crazy; it was the last home game of the season, that was a pretty good moment."

Working with the Eagles media relations staff gave him an exposure to a large media market, and he chose La Salle, in part, because of its Philadelphia location. His favorite publication is still Sports Illustrated, and his favorite writer is SI columnist Rick Reilly.