Long before the Pine Belt produced football legends such as Walter Payton, and decades before South Mississippi became the recruiting territory it is today, a kid from Richton was making his own unlikely journey from the Pine Belt to professional football.
His name was Harvey Allen “Ham” Murphy Jr.
Murphy was born in Richton on August 24, 1915. If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, that’s understandable. His NFL career lasted only two games before World War II broke out, and his playing days came nearly a century ago. But Murphy’s story is one of those nearly forgotten pieces of Pine Belt sports history worth bringing back to life.
Because in 1940, when professional football looked nothing like the billion-dollar NFL we know today, a player who grew up in the Pine Belt made it all the way there.
Murphy’s football story really began in Hattiesburg. He attended Hattiesburg High School, playing end for the Tigers during the 1930s. Murphy wasn’t simply another player on the roster, either. By his senior season in 1935, he had developed into one of the South’s better high school football players and was selected to an All-Southern high school team.
Think about what that meant in 1935.
There were no recruiting websites. There weren’t highlight videos circulating on social media or camps every weekend where a player from South Mississippi could get noticed. Yet Murphy had become good enough in Hattiesburg that his reputation extended well beyond Mississippi.
His next stop was Oxford. Murphy enrolled at Ole Miss in 1936 and eventually became an end for the Rebels. Ole Miss records list Murphy as a football letterman in 1938 and 1939, and he also competed in track and field, earning a letter in the discus.
And Murphy could play. One glimpse of how good he was came against Arkansas in 1938. Ole Miss star Parker Hall threw a touchdown pass to Murphy as the Rebels beat the Razorbacks 20-14. Hall would go on to become the second overall selection in the 1939 NFL Draft and later the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. Murphy was one of the players on the receiving end of his passes in Oxford.
A year later, Murphy was still making an impression. After Ole Miss played Tulane in New Orleans in 1939, a contemporary account singled out Murphy and fellow end Gladding as two of the busiest and best ends on the field, particularly praising their work defensively.
There was also tragedy during Murphy’s final season. His close friend and roommate, Ole Miss end Jesse Ward, died in 1939. Murphy was subsequently moved to Ward’s left-end position as the Rebels tried to replace him. It was a far different college football world than the one we recognize today, and Murphy finished his career in Oxford under circumstances few players would ever want to experience.
Then came an opportunity that very few football players received in those days.
In June 1940, Murphy signed a professional contract with the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League. Ole Miss’ own historical list of Rebels in professional football still includes “Harvey (Ham) Murphy” and his 1940 season with Cleveland.
The franchise that eventually moved to Los Angeles, then St. Louis and ultimately back to Los Angeles was still playing in Cleveland when a former Hattiesburg High Tiger joined the roster. Murphy was 25 years old, listed at 5-foot-10 and 194 pounds, and played end on both sides of the football. He appeared in two NFL games during the 1940 season. The Rams eventually released him on October 22.
Two games doesn’t sound like much when viewed through a modern lens. But that’s almost missing the point. Murphy had gone from Richton to Hattiesburg High, from Hattiesburg to Ole Miss and from Oxford all the way to professional football at a time when the NFL was still finding its place in the American sports landscape.
His football career wasn’t the end of his story, either. Murphy later served in the United States Navy during World War II. Afterward, he returned to Mississippi and worked as a state trooper. He died in 1992 at the age of 76. Today, there isn’t much fanfare surrounding Ham Murphy’s name. Younger Hattiesburg football fans probably have never heard of him. Even longtime Mississippi football fans might have to dig through old record books to find him.
But maybe that’s what makes his story worth telling. Every generation thinks its football history begins with the players it remembers. The Pine Belt’s goes back much further. On August 24, 1915, a future NFL player was born in Richton. He became one of the South’s top high school players in Hattiesburg, played for Ole Miss and eventually put on an NFL uniform.
One hundred and eleven years later, Ham Murphy deserves to be remembered as one of the Pine Belt’s early football pioneers.
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