Football coach.
Born at Winnipeg on 12 March 1932 to Josephine Carrie Stucke (1893-1979) and William James Murphy (1897-1951), as a child he moved with his family to Vancouver, British Columbia where his father was a senior executive with Coca-Cola. There, he attended Vancouver College, an independent K-12 Catholic school for boys, and excelled in his senior years at football. He then starred with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds football team, and played a brief stint with the BC Lions in 1956. In 1960, he returned to Vancouver College as head coach for their team.
In 1961, he married Joyce Barbara Appleby, with whom he went on to have eight children. Securing a job as assistant coach with Eastern Washington University, he pursued his Master’s degree at the same time. He then went on to coach at the University of Hawaii and San Jose State University.
In 1974, he joined the Canadian Football League (CFL) as an assistant with the BC Lions, becoming head coach in 1975. He moved on to the Montreal Alouettes in 1977 and won his first Grey Cup as an assistant with that team. He spent 1978 through 1982 as an offensive line coach with the Edmonton Eskimos (later renamed the Edmonton Elks), where the team won five consecutive Grey Cup titles.
In 1983, he returned to his birthplace to become the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ head coach, and the following season, brought Winnipeg its first Grey Cup championship in 22 years. He received the CFL’s Annis Stukas Coach of the Year award in both 1983 and 1984. He continued to serve as head coach from 1983 to 1986, then as General Manager from 1987-1996. During the last three years, from 1993-1996, he was both head coach and GM. He was also one of the driving forces in helping bring the Grey Cup game to the Winnipeg in 1991, when the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders 36–21 at the old Winnipeg Stadium.
When he left the club after the 1996 season, he had a coaching record of 86 wins, 51 losses, and one tie, which was second most in franchise history at the time. He finished his CFL career in Regina with the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1997 to 1999. He coached with the Frankfurt Galaxy in the NFL Europe league in 2002, followed by a stint with the Chicago Enforcers in the short-lived XFL. At the time of his death, he was working as a scout for the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts.
After suffering heart attacks in 1978 and 1985, he underwent emergency heart bypass surgery in 1992 that kept him alive before being saved by a last-second donor and successful heart transplant surgery. The experience led him to begin actively promoting organ donor awareness, using his life's theme of Faith, Family and Friends. In January 1993, the Governor General of Canada presented him with a 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in recognition of the significant contribution to compatriots, community, and to Canada.
Since 2001, the Bombers have presented the annual Cal Murphy Heart of a Legend Award to the player who best demonstrates outstanding sportsmanship and dedication to the CFL and community. In 2002, he was inducted into the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame, and in 2004 into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
He died at Regina, Saskatchewan on 18 February 2012 and was buried in the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery. Posthumous recognition took the form of a bronze statue erected outside Gate 3 at Winnipeg’s new sports stadium in 2017, and being inducted into the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Ring of Honour in 2026.
Obituary, Regina Leader-Post, 21 February 2012.
“Hall of Fame coach Cal Murphy to be added to Blue Bombers' Ring of Honour,” CBC News, 18 June 2026.
Cal Murphy, Wikipedia.
“Clarence Patrick Murphy,” Elfelt-Johnson Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 25 June 2026
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