It has been a different type of summer for NFL alum Mark Murphy, who stepped down last month after 17 seasons as Packers President & CEO.
Murphy, who reached the Packers mandatory retirement age of 70 on July 13, has been a sports administrator getting ready each August for the football season since 1992. He spent 12 years (1992-2003) as Athletic Director at Colgate University followed by five more years in the same capacity at Northwestern University. He was named the Packers President in 2007.
“The Packers took a chance on me in much the same way that Colgate did in ’92,” Murphy recalls. “I was not involved with Green Bay and had nothing to do with the team before I was hired. It was slightly different at Colgate because I had been a student-athlete there. However I was relatively young and inexperienced in terms of intercollegiate athletics, but that first athletic director’s job really changed my whole career path.”
After his playing career ended in 1984 with Washington, Murphy brought his Georgetown University law degree to the NFLPA, and later spent three years as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice.
In addition to eight consecutive playoff appearances (2009-2016) and a Super Bowl XLV title in 2010, Murphy helped secure the funding to expand Lambeau Field to its current capacity of 81,041. He also was largely responsible for building the Titletown District, a development that includes residential housing along with commercial & public space across the street from Lambeau.
Murphy, who will be the sole inductee at Packers Hall of Fame ceremonies later this month, plans to remain living in Green Bay in his retirement. Several of us alumni list golf as our primary hobby; Murphy went one step further by buying a golf course about an hour away from Lambeau.
We at NFL Alumni are proud of our brother Mark Murphy’s accomplishments and wish him and his wife Laurie only bright cool skies and beautiful Wisconsin sunsets in the years ahead.
