[4] In March, 1970, Murphy helped lead Hinsdale High to the Illinois State championships again for their fourth straight year, swam on a winning 200-yard medley relay, and took first in the 100-yard backstroke with a meet record time of 53.2.

John Kinsella, a fellow 1972 Olympic gold medal winner, swam for Hinsdale Central High School with Murphy and was often a major factor in their frequent Illinois State Championship wins.

[8] Around the age of 19, Murphy won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. team in the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany with a world record breaking combined time of 3:26.42.

[1] Murphy won a gold medal at the first World Aquatics Championships (FINA) in the 4×100 metres freestyle in Yugoslavia in 1973, where he swam with Joe Bottom, Jim Montgomery, and Mel Nash, who was not an Olympian.

[1] At the August, 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, Murphy captured a gold in the 4x100-meter medley, and a silver in the 100-meter backstroke.

Around ten years after graduating from Indiana, he moved to New Mexico, and has resided in Los Alamos, where he served as a youth swim team coach as a volunteer.