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June 23, 2010

Longtime Providence coach, teacher dies

‘Spider’ Murphy spent 37 years at school

By CHRIS MORRIS Chris.Morris@newsandtribune.com

FLOYD COUNTY — Gary Rosenberger admits that Gene “Spider” Murphy was tough, but when it came to dealing with kids, he was all heart.

“Inside I think he had a soft heart. He loved kids,” Rosenberger said of his former coach and mentor. “But he was going to make sure they did the right thing.”

On Tuesday morning, the man who spent 37 years teaching and coaching at Our Lady of Providence High School, died. He was 82.

Murphy spent many of his years at Providence as dean of boys prior to Rosenberger taking the post.

“I tried to do what he did because I knew whatever he did was the right thing,” Rosenberger said.

Murphy, along with his brother Pete, both coached at Providence and laid the foundation for the school’s athletic program. Spider was Providence’s first football coach and also coached baseball and track while Pete coached basketball. The football stadium at the school — Murphy Stadium — is named in their honor.

“The Providence community will sorely miss Spider,” said Stan Denny, who coached and taught with Murphy at Providence. “It’s one of those days you didn’t think would happen because he got through throat cancer. I will cherish the time I spent with him.”

Denny said he remembers watching Murphy for the first time, playing basketball for New Albany High School. He said he saw Murphy hit a half-court shot that gave the Bulldogs a victory against Jasper.

Murphy went on to star in both baseball and basketball at LSU before coming home to teach and coach at Providence.

When Denny later played baseball for Lake Charles, La., a team in the Giants’ organization, he would run into Murphy in Baton Rouge while playing in the area. When he came home following his days in pro baseball, he took a job at Providence and his room was directly across from Murphy’s. He also said the two were even neighbors recently while staying at Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services.

“Neither one of us could get up, but his wife Betty would come over and give me a message from time to time. I can’t repeat everything in those messages,” Denny said with a laugh. “I always found Spider to be in good spirits. His family meant so much to that school [Providence].”

Fred Geswein, who ran track for Murphy before coming back to Providence as a teacher and coach, said he always respected his mentor.

“He wanted to win. He worked hard and played hard,” Geswein said. “He would get on you but no matter what happened, when it was over it was over. It was on to the next play.”

Geswein said he was in Sacramento in 2000 for the Olympic Trials and ran into an LSU supporter in the elevator. The man asked Geswein where he was from, and when he heard New Albany, the man immediately remembered two former athletes who played for the Tigers from the area — Joe Dean and Spider Murphy.

“Here we were, across the country, Spider had been out of LSU for a number of years, and the guy was talking about Spider Murphy,” Geswein said.

Murphy’s visitation will be from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday at Kraft Funeral Service, 708 E. Spring St., in New Albany. His funeral will be 11 a.m. Friday at Holy Family Catholic Church.

“His passing is a loss for this community because he meant so much to a lot of us,” Geswein said.

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