Chadron State College Athletics

Murray led Scottsbluff High School to the Class AA state basketball title in 1955 by scoring 33 points, including the winning shot from about 20 feet away with 16 seconds left, as the Bearcats defeated Creighton Prep 63-61 in the championship game. Scottsbluff had trailed 61-52 with four minutes left before staging its winning rally. In his book, “Nebraska High School Sports,” published in 1980, the late Jerry Mathers called the Scottsbluff rally as the greatest comeback in the history of the Nebraska State Basketball Tournament.
Murray’s  “shot heard round the state” was just one of his many athletic accomplishments.  Others included playing minor league baseball, playing basketball at Chadron State and ringing up an amazing 516-178 record as a baseball coach in California high schools.
He signed a baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1955 shortly after graduating from high school. He was beginning his third year as a pitcher in the minors when he tore a muscle in his back and was forced to give up the sport.
He then enrolled in college and earned all-conference honors and led Chadron State in scoring with a 15.2-point average as a senior in 1959-60. He also earned his master’s degree from CSC.
Most of his coaching career was at William S. Hart High in Newhall, Calif. During 22 years there, his teams won 16 conference championships. His final season in 1999 was the best. His Hart Indians won their final 13 games to finish with a 27-4 record and capture the Southern California Division championship. The patrons of the school gave Murray and his wife, Dori, a $3,500 retirement gift, the baseball field was named in his honor and he was the recipient of the California Coaches Association’s High School Baseball Coach of the Year Award.
The Murrays live in Huntington Beach, Calif.