Donna Murphy was breakout star during 1974-75 season when girls basketball was reinstated as sanctioned sport

By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter

Donna Murphy was a sophomore at Newport High School when she first heard about the Kentucky High School Athletic Association reinstating girls basketball as a sanctioned sport beginning with the 1974-75 academic year.

This season marks the 50th anniversary of that decision and Murphy was among the talented players who sparked the resurgence of the sport that’s now being played by more than 8,000 girls on the varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams in Kentucky high schools.

After federal Title IX legislation demanded gender equity in sports, the KHSAA complied by restoring girls basketball playoffs that had been discontinued since 1932. Murphy remembers her reaction to the announcement.

“Myself and four of my teammates decided that we were going to spend a lot of time together in the summer and just work on our games together,” she recalled. “We got five guys that were ballers at our high school and we met about every day in the summer at the junior high. Those guys really competed against us and we had to step up our game.”

Murphy was the leading scorer and rebounder on the Newport team that won the 9th Region tournament, made it to the quarterfinals of the state tournament and finished the historic 1974-75 season with a 21-3 record.

At that time, girls played with the same size basketball as boys, but that didn’t hamper Murphy. During the 9th Region tournament, the athletic left-handed shooter scored 40, 43 and 38 points for a net total of 121 that is still a tournament record. In the championship game, she made 15 of her team’s 23 field goals and Newport defeated Holy Cross, 58-56, in overtime.

Going into the 1975 state tournament, Murphy was anxious to compete against girls from other parts of Kentucky she had been reading about in downstate newspapers all season.

“I think I was ranked No. 7 in the state at that time and I took that as a challenge,” she said. “I thought if there’s anybody that out-practices me or out-plays me, I want to see them. I wanted to go to the state tournament and show them, ‘Hey, I can play this game, too.’’’

In the opening round, Newport defeated Russell, 58-42, with Murphy getting 42 points and 23 rebounds in a game that drew an estimated crowd of 3,300 at Eastern Kentucky University’s Alumni Coliseum.

The Wildcats lost to Louisville Butler, 51-50, in the state quarterfinals. Murphy got into early foul trouble in the game and was limited to 25 points and 13 rebounds, but she was still named most valuable player on the state all-tournament team.

Murphy ended up averaging 32 points and 22 rebounds per game as the breakout star during the comeback season for Kentucky girls high school basketball 50 years ago.

“We played team ball and I was smart enough to know when to give it up and when to take it,” Murphy said of her scoring prowess. “But when it got down to the nitty-gritty, I was the go-to and I did what I had to do. I loved the game and played it all the time, so it was very natural to me.”

As a senior, Murphy averaged 35 points, 20 rebounds and six assists. She set another 9th Region tournament record with 49 points in a semifinal win, but Newport lost to Holy Cross in the region final. Even though her team did not make it back to the state tournament, Murphy was named the first Miss Kentucky Basketball in 1976.

She went on to play college basketball for Morehead State University, where she posted career totals of 2,059 points and 1,442 rebounds. She was then drafted by St. Louis Streak, one of the teams in the Women’s Professional Basketball League that folded after three seasons.

After her playing days ended, Murphy completed her graduate degree in education and began coaching. She was an assistant for several women’s college teams, including Kentucky, Cincinnati, Florida, Memphis and Morehead State. She organized one of the first girls AAU basketball teams in Kentucky and helped start the women’s program at Asbury College.

She tried to instill in younger players the work ethic and attitude she used to become successful in the sport and led to numerous Hall of Fame inductions.

“After every game, even when I was playing in college, I didn’t think about how many points I scored or how many rebounds or assists I had,” she said. “I just always visualized the shots I missed or the things I should’ve done. It was always about getting better. I wasn’t basking in any laurels or anything, just going out and playing.”

Murphy, 66, has retired from coaching. She’s living in Lexington and working part-time for the University of Kentucky’s College of Education. She still keeps tabs on Northern Kentucky girls basketball. Her younger brother, Kes, is in his seventh season as head coach of the Notre Dame Academy girls program.

Ten years ago, Kes was head coach at Holy Cross when the Indians became the first 9th Region girls basketball team to win the state tournament. His big sister was there for the championship game. A few weeks later, the first Donna Murphy Award was given to the top student-athlete in Kentucky girls basketball.

That annual award assures that her contributions to the sport that’s celebrating the 50th anniversary of its return to statewide competition will never be forgotten.

“I like seeing women being able to compete and do it in a way that reflects their love for the game and being able to show their ability,” Murphy said. “I’m glad they’ve got opportunities we didn’t have in the past and the ones that came before me never had.”