Ray Murphy Jr. (October 4, 1946 – July 20, 2010) was an All-American collegiate

wrestler Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves diffe ...

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

. He was awarded the 1998 Medal of Courage from the

National Wrestling Hall of Fame The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame for amateur wrestling, headquartered in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2010, it began operating the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. History The museum was awarded to Stil ...

Early life

Ray was born in Joplin, Missouri on October 4, 1946, the son of the late Raymond Sr. and Ferol Murphy. In 1964, he graduated from Nathan Hale High School in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

where he was an All-State wrestler. He was a high school classmate of actor

Gary Busey William Gary Busey (; born June 29, 1944) is an American actor. He portrayed Buddy Holly in ''The Buddy Holly Story'' (1978), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics Award fo ...

Collegiate wrestling career

Murphy entered college at

and caught the head wrestling coach's eye by winning an intramural tournament. This allowed him to "walk on" the team. Murphy's collegiate wrestling career included two appearances in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

national tournament in 1968 and 1969 with the OSU Cowboys. He placed fifth in the 137 pound weight class and second in the 145 pound weight class, making him a two-time NCAA All-American. He was a hopeful to compete in the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. Murphy was also a brother of the Oklahoma Alpha Chapter of the

Sigma Phi Epsilon Sigma Phi Epsilon (), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college Fraternities and sororities, fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College, which is now the University of ...

fraternity at Oklahoma State.

Life-changing injury

On April 11, 1970, during a wrestling match at OSU, Murphy was thrown during a match and landed directly on his head, paralyzing him from the neck down. For the remainder of his life, Murphy dealt with paralysis and required mechanical assistance in breathing. Murphy was actively involved in the development of

sip-and-puff Sip-and-puff or sip 'n' puff (SNP) is assistive technology used to send signals to a device using air pressure by "sipping" (inhaling) or "puffing" (exhaling) on a straw, tube or "wand." It is primarily used by people who do not have the use of ...

technology—a method where a person can sip and puff in a straw in code to send commands to mechanical devices. In Ray Murphy's case, he could use sip-and-puff technology to adjust lights in a room, change channels on a television, type on a keyboard, and control his wheelchair. Because of the importance of sip-and-puff technology, which he used to operate his computer and other amenities, Murphy became a national leader in research of new additions to this technique and later using

eye tracking Eye tracking is the process of measuring either the point of gaze (where one is looking) or the motion of an eye relative to the head. An eye tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movement. Eye trackers are used in research ...

technology. He also was employed as a computer programmer by

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

and other corporations to advance this and other assistI've technologies.

Later years and death

Murphy died in his Tulsa, Oklahoma home Tuesday morning, July 20, 2010. He was 63 years old.

Other awards and honors

Murphy also won the National Outstanding Handicap award for his determination and work as a quadriplegic.The Daily O’Collegian » Summer staff
/ref> In 1989, he received national recognition as Handicapped Person of the Year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Ray Jr. 1946 births 2010 deaths American disabled sportspeople American male sport wrestlers Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestlers Nathan Hale High School alumni People with tetraplegia 20th-century American sportsmen