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Although Morehead State now plays its football in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, the Eagles made a lasting impact when they were football-playing members of the Ohio Valley Conference from the league's inception in 1948 to 1995.
The MSU program produced arguably the greatest player to play in the Conference in
Phil Simms (1975-78). Sims was the 1977 OVC Offensive Player of the Year and finished his collegiate career with 5,545 passing yards and 32 touchdowns. He was drafted as the seventh overall pick by the New York Giants (one of just four NFL first round picks in OVC history) and spent 15 years with the team, including being the MVP of Super Bowl XXI. Since his retirement he has enjoyed a long television broadcasting career.
While Simms may be the most famous player to have played at Morehead State,
Howard Murphy may be the most important. Murphy broke the color barrier in becoming the first African-American to play football in the OVC, playing running back for the Eagles from 1960-63.
Murphy rushed for 1,447 yards and 13 touchdowns in his time at MSU. He was selected first-team All-OVC in 1962 and second-team All-OVC in 1961 when he paced the conference with 6.3 yards per carry. He was also named a Little All-American in 1961. Murphy was also an accomplished track athlete, setting a then-OVC record with a time of 9.7 in the 100-yard dash.
The Springfield, Ohio, native was inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990 and in September 2016 his No. 33 jersey was officially retired by Morehead State.
MSU teammate Mike Brown, who earned his doctorate and was MSUl's long-time faculty athletics representative, remembers how the late Murphy dealt with being the first African-American player in the OVC.
It was, in Brown's words, "a tough situation."
"And especially when we went on the road to the South, to the Tennessee schools," Brown said. "We got in scuffles all the time, his teammates did, because they were punching him in the pileups and giving him a hard time because he was black."
Brown was raised in an integrated community. But the same was not true for some teammates.
"We had a lot of Georgia players, Tennessee players. I'm sure it's the first time they ever played against a black," Brown said. "I'm sure they had some problems with that relationship. But after they got to know him, what kind of fella he was and how hard a worker he was, no problems.
"He never complained. Never struck back. Never did things that were out of place," Brown said. "He was a great guy. … When we would dig him out of a pileup and things like that, protect him, he'd just walk back to the huddle and get in his position and wait for the next play.
More on Murphy's life through Brown's words can be found in this
feature article written by Mark Maloney.