Quality coaches collide
by Chris Federico
Sports Editor
Sometimes it seems like things just work out for the best.
Today the Irish baseball team hosts Arizona State — and former Notre Dame head coach Pat Murphy — for a two-game series against the 17th-ranked Sun Devils.
It will be Murphy's first trip back to campus since 1995, when he became the first head coach in Notre Dame history to leave for another position.
"It's really special just to be back," Murphy said. "It's a special place in my life because it's done so much for me. Notre Dame has been a part of my life even before I coached here — just being a tremendous fan."
In 1988, Murphy took over a Notre Dame baseball squad in shambles. The team had gone 15-29 the previous year, had only four scholarship players and had failed to finish a season with a winning record for five consecutive years.
In just his first year, Murphy turned the Irish into a 39-22 team. The next year, the Irish won a school-record 48 games and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 19 years. In each of his next five seasons, the Irish would win at least 40 games, and made the NCAA tournament from 1992-94.
"I had taken over a program [at Notre Dame] that hadn't won a lot," Murphy said with a chuckle. "It was kind of fun being part of the rise, even though I wasn't the reason we got good. The reason we got good is because we had great kids."
But the Irish did soar under his leadership, from a baseball nobody to a team to be contended with on a yearly basis.
In 1992, at the height of his success as coach, national-power Miami offered him a lucrative head coaching deal, but Murphy turned it down.
"I still believed I had more work to do at Notre Dame," Murphy said. "The [new] stadium wasn't built yet. There were things to still get done."
Indeed, in 1993 Notre Dame built a 3,000-seat stadium for its baseball team. In each of those next two years, the Irish went 46-16, and fell just one win short of the College World Series in 1994.
After his third straight NCAA tournament bid in 1994, it was Arizona State that came knocking on Murphy's door, and this time, he was willing to listen. He accepted the position.
"In leaving for Arizona State, the time was right in my life," Murphy said. "I needed to do some different things and make some adjustments. But just because you leave Notre Dame, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have a lasting effect on you the rest of your life. It was a very special time in my life."
With the departure of one of its most successful coaches, Notre Dame had some giant shoes to fill.
Enter current head coach Paul Mainieri.
Mainieri picked up right where Murphy had left off, leading his Irish squad to a 40-21 record, the most wins ever for a first-year coach at Notre Dame.
"I'm glad that Coach Murphy left because it gave me an opportunity to come here," Mainieri said with a smile. "It was a very big thing for me to get the opportunity to come to Notre Dame. I've worked very hard to try to continue the excellence that he had established and to try to improve upon it. I feel very proud of what we've accomplished in the seven-plus years at Notre Dame."
In those years, Mainieri has made a significant contribution to the Irish legacy. From 1995-2001, Mainieri and the Irish have stretched Murphy's string of 40-win seasons to 13, highlighted by appearances in the NCAA tournament the past three years and the program's first No. 1 ranking, which occurred during play last season.
"I knew [the team] was in very capable hands — those of the guy I recommended for the job and thought of as a tremendous coach and a friend," Murphy said of his successor. "With the success they've had, I see that they're always in there. I couldn't tell you the names or the exact stuff sometimes, but I can tell you they continue to be very, very good."
Now Mainieri is becoming a coaching commodity across the nation to teams hoping to lure him away from South Bend. Word was that several teams made some lucrative offers but were turned down by the Irish skipper.
"I can tell you this: I don't have any deep aspirations that there's a better job out there for me," Mainieri said. "I don't sit around and say, `Boy, if only I could go to that school.' I don't have any feelings about any other school out there."
Although Mainieri was careful not to pull a Rick Pitino by guaranteeing that he would never leave, it seems safe to say that he feels very comfortable in his present position.
"You never say `never' to anything," Mainieri said. "If I were to say that absolutely, unequivocally there would never be anything else, and then something blew you away with the opportunity or if you just wanted a new challenge at some point in your life, you don't want people to think you're a liar. That's why I never say `never' to anything. But I can tell you that I don't have any other aspirations of any other job out there. I think I've got the best job."
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer. Contact Chris Federico at cfederic@nd.edu
All Sports Stories for Friday, April 26, 2002
