Murphy attended Yale University, where he played tackle for the school's football team.
In the 1894 game, four players on each team suffered serious injuries, resulting in the cancellation of the football rivalry between the two schools.
Murphy was left unconscious for five hours in a hospital as a result of the beating he took in the game.
Murphy was educated at Phillips Academy, graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts in 1897,[2] and studied at Harvard Medical School (M.D.
During the World War he was 'director and commanding officer of Base Hospital 21 in France (1917–8), and later was director of the medical and surgical department of the American Red Cross, representing the chief surgeon of the American Expeditionary Forces, with the rank of colonel.