James Michael Murphy served over 35 years in basketball officiating, working at both the high school and collegiate levels, and also worked baseball for eight years. As a member of the Capital City Basketball Officials Association, Murphy served as a board member and assigner for many years and worked in numerous AHSAA state basketball tournaments. He joined the Gulf South Conference (GSC), what was known as one of the most respected Division II conferences in the country, and later became the conference’s Supervisor of Officials for both men’s and women’s basketball. In 1992, Murphy had the pleasure of working with fellow Hall of Fame members, Paul Andrzejewski and Bill Gauldin where Troy set an NCAA scoring record of 258 points beating DeVry who scored 141. He also worked the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Louisville along with several GSC tournament finals and Alabama Junior College tournament finals. Murphy was also a member of the Sunshine States, SIAC, TransAmerica, ASUN, MidAmerica and SWAC. Mary Day, member of the inaugural 2019 Hall of Fame class, gives credit to Murphy for getting her involved with basketball officiating. Day says that Murphy got her and five other women to start that season and “all six of our lives were changed and impacted” that day. Murphy attended W. A. Berry High School and the University of Montevallo. Mike is married to Joy and has three children: Cort Peavy (Mandi), Justin Peavy (Renata), and Merritt Jones (Stephen) along with ten grandchildren.
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