Sure, Ruffner P. Murray coached the Memphis Central High basketball team to four city prep league championships from 1938 through 1952. And it’s true that his baseball teams were also extremely successful, winning the city championship four times. Even in his one year as Central’s track & field coach, 1939, his team won the state championship! All of these accomplishments being noted, it is most astonishing that high school football is where the name Ruffner P. Murray became legendary. Murray came to Central as head coach in 1938 direct from the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he had starred in football and baseball. He had also won the Williams Award, given to the player who in the opinion of coaches had the greatest moral influence on his teammates. Murray started his coaching career at Central with a prep league championship in 1939 and repeated seven more times over the next three decades. In 1946 and 1950, his teams were ranked number one in the state. During his thirty years of coaching before retiring in 1968, Murray’s football teams posted an impressive record of 174 wins, 74 losses and 11 ties. In his own words, “the biggest thrill of coaching is being with the kids.” All those kids, and the entire state of Tennessee, are grateful to Ruffner P. Murray for his great contributions to the sport of high school football.
