injury during the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.
“Another friend of ours Pam and I used to double with all through
college was Dr. Billy Morgan,” Murray said. “He said, ‘Muggsy, you’re
not going to believe it. I come home late one night. We’re down three
games to none against the Yankees and I said, what am I going to do?
(Schilling) is healthy as an ox from the ankle up. If I can do something
medically to stabilize that tendon, we could get some use out of him.’”
Morgan would visit the morgue at Massachusetts General Hospital
where he found two cadavers to experiment on where he would find
a way to stabilize Schilling’s ankle and get him through the iconic
“Bloody Sock” game.
The Red Sox have won two World Series since in 2007 and 2013.
‘From Little Russ to Big Muggs’
It’s hard to fathom today that the five-time Super Bowl champion
New England Patriots would ever have a problem getting people in the
stands.
But long before Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski in Murray’s
younger days, that was the case when the then Boston Patriots helped
start the American Football League (AFL).
“We used to be able to take a free bus over with free tickets,” he said.
“They quit doing that because there wasn’t even enough people to fill
the buses.”
Across the league meant to rival the well-established National
Football League, fans found AFL teams far more accessible, and this
was no different in the Boston area.
“When we were kids, a guy in the neighborhood would take a
bunch of us little kids over to their training camp and it was very lax,”
Murray said. “The fans could walk around because there weren’t many
of us. The following just wasn’t what it is today.”
With the sport still growing in popularity overall and the new
league trying to get any footing it could, Murray noted the presentation
was night and day compared to what we’d see in professional football
today.
“It wasn’t as near professional as it is today,” he said. “The uniforms
would have holes in them. Today they get five jerseys brand new and
everything’s spectacular and well-maintained and well-kept today. You
look at the old pictures of Fenway Park, it’s tattered, the (grass) wasn’t
green. Today you don’t see any of that.”
As with the Red Sox, the Patriots had more bad days than good as
Murray grew up, including a 46-10 beat down courtesy of the Chicago
Bears in Super Bowl XX, a 51-10 rout by the San Diego Chargers in the
1963 AFL Championship
and a loss to Brett Favre and
the Green Bay Packers in
Super Bowl XXXI.
“I was a Patriot fan
and wore all this stuff and
memorabilia when we
were 1-15,” he said. “All
those people that razz and
ride me these days, I say, ‘I
remember the bad days and
I was still there for them in
those days.’”
Murray’s had the
opportunity to meet a few
more recent Patriots players,
including South Dakota native Adam Vinatieri.
Hartington, Nebraska native and former Patriots player Russ
Hochstein also made a stop at Muggsy’s, and this gave Murray a chance
to stretch his height a bit.
“I said, ‘Russ, I want to get a picture for the wall,’” he said. “I’m
standing on a chair next to him and he said, ‘What’re you doing?’ ‘Just
shut up and take the picture.’ We took the picture, I cropped the chair
out so now I look huge. I only come up to about (his chest). I’m real
little to him, but in the picture I look pretty big because of the way I
cropped it. I want him to sign it, ‘From Little Russ to Big Muggs.’”
Lyle Alzado
Murray’s had the experience of meeting a number of sports stars
who aren’t quite associated with Boston, including former University
of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan, baseball great Pete Rose,
basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen and more.
But one of the sports relationships Murray remembers most fondly
is his relationship with the late Lyle Alzado.
Murray befriended Alzado when the two attended Yankton College.
At one point, Alzado — whose many non-football ventures included
boxing — gave the Murrays a chance to see one of the biggest sports
legends of all time in action.
“I come home from work one day and my wife goes, ‘Lyle called and
he says he’s got tickets for you and me in Denver. He’s going to fight
vMURRAY continued on page 13
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