[1] An accomplished athlete, he was a four-letter man and, as captain of the baseball team, once pitched a no-hit game.

In 1917, at the advent of America's involvement in World War I, Hurley enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became a radio electrician for the submarine fleet (the "pig boats") and on the battleship Pennsylvania.

After the war, he played professional football and semiprofessional baseball before joining his father's construction firm.

Wilbur Lucius Cross, Governor of Connecticut at the time, appointed Hurley to the directorship of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he quickly mobilized the war production effort and forged a labor-management agreement called "Connecticut's Compact for Victory" that achieved a "no strike pledge" from labor for the unknown duration of the war, and gave the governor sole authority to arbitrate labor disputes during the conflict.

After completing his term, Hurley was active in the Democratic National Committee and was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be a member of the Surplus Property Board from 1944 to 1945.