Jim Murray (born 1938 or 1939) is the co-founder of the

Ronald McDonald House Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is an independent American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. RMHC has a global network of ...

and a former

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

. A native of

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

, he is also president of Jim Murray Ltd, a sports promotion and marketing firm.

Early life and education

Murray was born into an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

family. He was raised in a

rowhouse A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Murray attended Our Mother of Sorrows Parish grade school and West Philadelphia Catholic High School. He and his brother Francis W. "Fran" Murray were athletic. He graduated from

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

in 1960.

Career

He began his career in sports administration with the

Tidewater Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesape ...

of baseball's

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

. After a tour of active duty with the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

Reserve, he returned to baseball as assistant general manager of the

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were a Minor League Baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1966. History Atlanta played its inaugu ...

, an affiliate of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

. In 1964, he left baseball to enter the restaurant business. He returned om 1966 to his alma mater,

, as its sports information director. In 1969, he joined the professional football team

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

staff and became the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

team's administrative assistant two years later. In 1974, five years after joining the organization, Murray was named

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for the team. For more than nine years, Murray served as general manager which included significant improvement in the team, as evidenced by its appearances in playoff games and a

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

. In 1976, he and owner

Leonard Tose Leonard Hyman Tose (March 6, 1915 – April 15, 2003) was an owner of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1969 to 1985. He made a fortune in the trucking industry and was known for his lavish lifestyle but he eventually lost it all due to a gambling ad ...

hired

Dick Vermeil Richard Albert Vermeil ( ; born October 30, 1936) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles for seven seasons, the St. L ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

. Murray was fired after the 1982 season and succeeded by Tose's daughter, Susan Tose Fletcher.

Film and television

Murray's company has produced the local television show ''Eagles Cheers''. He appears in interviews on numerous

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...

Productions about the Philadelphia Eagles. Murray's nephew T. Patrick Murray (son of his brother Fran) is a filmmaker who produced '' The Last Game'', a football

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Charity work

During his 14 years with the Eagles, Murray assumed leadership roles in a number of community projects. He helped start the successfu
Eagles Fly for Leukemia
campaign and co-founded with Dr. Audrey Evans the first

, located in Philadelphia. Murray persuaded many of his peers in the NFL to become involved in the unique Ronald McDonald House concept.

Awards

Murray has received numerous honors and awards, including: *

Award (2002), first awardee *

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

's Citizen of the Year Award (1999) *

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...

Distinguished Service Award (1992) * Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Philadelphia City All-Star Chapter (inducted 1992) * President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

's Medal for Volunteers of America (1987) * Bakers Club of Philadelphia's Bert Bell Man of the Year Award (1983) * Catholic Leadership Institute's Award for Outstanding Catholic Leadership (2005)

Personal life

Murray and his wife, Dianne, reside in

Rosemont, Pennsylvania Rosemont is a neighborhood and census-designated place in Pennsylvania, United States. Partly in Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County and partly in Radnor Township in Delaware County, it is on the Philadelphia Main Line. It is best kno ...

. They have five children and five grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Jim Players of American football from Philadelphia American people of Irish descent American Roman Catholics Philadelphia Eagles executives NFL general managers Villanova Wildcats football Living people 1930s births United States Marines Villanova University alumni United States Marine Corps reservists Year of birth missing (living people)