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As she enters the 20th season of a legendary career, head coach Digit Murphy remains as competitive and committed to winning as she has been throughout her career.
"The biggest thing for me is winning," Murphy said. "That's really
all I care about right now, and I'll do whatever it takes to make
my team successful."
As Bears fans know, when Coach Murphy puts her mind to something
she usually makes it happen. During the 2006-07 season, she became
the winningest coach in Division I women's hockey history, picking
up her 300th win later in the year. Her teams have made it to the
national semifinals four times, playing for the National
Championship three times. She has coached Olympians and
All-Americans, and captured numerous ECAC and Ivy League titles.
However, Murphy will also be the first to tell you that her job is
about more than success on the ice.
"Looking back, I don't remember the score of every game," Murphy
told ESPN in an interview after breaking the all-time wins record.
"But I remember the notes that former players have written to me,
telling me how much Brown hockey meant to them. That's why I coach.
My advice to new coaches is simple: be a sponge. Learn from
everyone you can. Work your butt off. In this field, if you don't
love it, you can't do it."
As the coach for the oldest collegiate women's hockey team in the
United States, Murphy's knowledge of the game and passion for
coaching is evident. Brown's success can be attributed to the "team
first" philosophy that Murphy has instituted and continues to seek
in Brown recruits.
"Brown is an academic institution and we approach our team
philosophy in the same way. Our kids learn life lessons through
athletics," Murphy says. Incoming freshmen understand this
philosophy clearly when they are recruited and continue this
trademark of relentless, tireless work ethic as part of their Brown
experience and into their future life experiences.
Murphy has led Brown to a record of .500 or better in 14 of her 18
seasons. In that time, Murphy has led Brown to five Ivy League
titles, six ECAC regular season or tournament titles and four
National Championship appearances. Murphy's players have been named
Ivy League Player of the Year eight times, ECAC Player of the Year
three times, Ivy and ECAC Rookie of the Year once, and ECAC
Goaltender of the Year once. Seven of her players have played in
the Olympics for the United States, Canada, and Japan, and four
have been named All-Americans. Her players have earned 13 first
team All-ECAC selections and 26 first team All-Ivy selections.
In 2004, Murphy was inducted into the International Scholar
Athlete Hall of Fame for her accomplishments both as a coach at
Brown and as a student-athlete at Cornell, where the women's hockey
team's MVP award is named after her. In 2001, members of the media
awarded Murphy the New England Hockey Writers' Coach of the Year
award, and in 1997 Murphy's fellow coaches and the media honored
her with both the ECAC/KOHO and the New England Hockey Writers'
Coach of the Year awards. Murphy was also the first female to reach
the 200-win plateau.
In the summer of 2004, Murphy coached the U.S. National team at
the Lake Placid Olympic Festival, where Brown University was
represented by eight of the 60 players. In October 1996, she
coached the U.S. National Team as an assistant at the Three Nations
Tournament. She has also coached at the Junior National level in
Lake Placid for eight years, and was a member of the 1998 Olympic
Selection Committee. In 1992, her well-respected hockey talents
earned her the position of assistant coach for the U.S. Women's Ice
Hockey National Team. Under Head Coach Russ McCurdy, she helped
lead the U.S. to a silver medal in Finland.
Besides coaching, Murphy has used her charismatic personality to
great effect in covering women's hockey for the media in various
capacities, including as a color analyst for Turner Broadcasting
coverage of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. She was
also a color analyst at the 2004 Women's Ice Hockey World
Championships for CSTV and the 2000 Women's Ice Hockey World
Championships for Oxygen Media. During the 1997-98 season, Lifetime
Television contracted her as a color analyst for the first-ever
women's hockey broadcast of the Four Nations Cup game between the
US and Canada.
Among many professional accomplishments, Murphy is most proud of
the ongoing grassroots growth of women's ice hockey and the
development of female athletes and coaches. Murphy was the primary
source for the start of the Rhode Island Girls' High School Hockey,
which was the first girls' developmental hockey league that
mentored players and developed new and inexperienced coaches.
A 1983 graduate of Cornell University, Murphy was a four-year
letter winner for the Big Red women's ice hockey team. She
captained the team as a junior and senior, and earned All-Ivy
honors in each of her four seasons. In 1981, she earned the
crowning achievement of her playing career when she was named the
Ivy League Player of the Year. As one of the all-time leading
scorers at Cornell, Murphy had a total of 123 goals and 90 assists
for 213 points. She was inducted into the Cornell Athletic Hall of
Fame in 1994. Prior to Cornell, Murphy played hockey locally for
the Cranston Panthers of the South Shore Women's Hockey League.
Upon graduating from Cornell with a degree in Business Economics,
Murphy worked for Data General Corporation as a production manager.
In 1988, she decided to leave the business world and devote herself
to full-time coaching. Before assuming the head-coaching job at
Brown, she assisted under Steven Shea at Brown.
Murphy, a native of Rhode Island, resides in Providence with her
partner and four children.
Coach Murphy's Team Highlights:
• 1993-1994: Led the Bears to a perfect 10-0-0 record in the
Ivy League, the first time Brown had done that since Ivy play began
in the 1983-84 season.
• 1994-1997: The Bears won three consecutive ECAC regular
season championships, going undefeated in the league in the 1995-96
and 1996-97 seasons. In a stretch from the 1994-95 to the 1996-97
seasons, Brown went undefeated in 49 ECAC games.
• 1996-1997: Brown finished 28-2-1 overall, cruising through
the ECAC (22-0-0) and Ivy League (10-0-0). The Bears won 28
consecutive games. Katie King '97 was named ECAC Player of the
Year, and Tara Mounsey '02.5 was named ECAC Rookie of the Year.
• 1997-1998: Brown upset New Hampshire to win the ECAC
Championship, the first time the team won the ECAC tournament. The
Bears advanced to the AWCHA Championship before falling to UNH.
• 1999-2000: Brown finished at 25-4-3, the team's fourth
consecutive season with at least 20 wins, winning both the ECAC
regular season and tournament championships. The Bears advanced to
the AWCHA Championship before falling 4-2 to Minnesota. Goaltender
Ali Brewer '00 was awarded the prestigious Patty Kazmaier Award as
the outstanding performer in NCAA Division I women's varsity ice
hockey. The team maintained a number one national ranking for much
of the season, finishing the season at number two.
• 2001-2002: Finished 25-8-2 after 3-6-1 start, going one
12-game stretch without losing. After winning the ECAC Tournament,
Brown advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Frozen Four by
defeating the #1-ranked University of Minnesota in the semifinals.
The team fell to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, 3-2, in the
National Championship game.
• 2006-2007: Became the winningest coach in Division I
women's college hockey history, picking up her 293rd win in a 3-1
Brown victory over Boston University to pass John Marchetti. Later
in the season, Murphy became the third collegiate women's hockey
coach to win 300 games, as the Bears beat Union, 6-0.
• Murphy maintains a winning record on all accounts,
currently at 306-179-48 overall, 105-69-18 in the Ivy League and
217-114-31 in the ECAC.
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Sean Coady joined the Brown University coaching staff for the
2008-09 season. Coady, a 1981 graduate of the University of New
Hampshire, will work primarily with the defense, and will also
focus on recruiting for the Bears. He joins the staff after a
distinguished career in a number of NHL front offices.
"Sean brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our program,"
head coach Digit Murphy said. "His time in the NHL makes him a top
judge of talent for recruiting, and his old-school approach to
hockey and defense makes him a perfect fit for what we want to do
here at Brown."
Coady played for four seasons as a defenseman at UNH, including
the 1979 season, when he was a captain on the ECAC Championship
team. After graduation he continued his playing career
professionally, spending three seasons in the Hartford Whalers (now
Carolina Hurricanes) organization.
Upon his retirement as a player, Coady moved into the coaching
ranks when he accepted an assistant coaching job at Princeton
University for the 1984-85 season. After a season with the Tigers,
Coady returned to his alma mater, where he was an assistant coach
from 1985-88 before making the transition into professional
scouting. Coady also made a temporary return to the sidelines in
1995, when he was an assistant coach for the U.S. National Team at
the World Championships.
Coady began his NHL career as a professional scout with the
Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes, a position which he held for six
years before being promoted to director of player personnel, where
he stayed for an additional six seasons. In 2001 Coady moved to the
Boston Bruins franchise, where he took on the role of professional
scouting and player personnel. While there he was responsible for
monitoring the progress of prospects and minor league players, as
well as giving input on potential transactions. After five years in
Boston, Coady accepted the same position with the San Jose Sharks,
where he stayed for two seasons before coming to Brown.
Coady lives in Boston with his wife, two daughters, and one son.
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Jill McInnis joins the coaching staff for the 2009-2010 season.
She comes to Brown from Saint Anselm College where she was an
assistant coach last season. Most recently, she recruited and
coached a team of current and former collegiate student-athletes in
the Czech Challenge Cup in Prague, Czech Republic. The team,
comprised of girls from the United States and Canada who currently
play or played at area New England Colleges was called the North
American All-Stars. They beat Russia for the gold medal in the
championship game in over time.
Last year at Saint Anselm, McInnis helped lead the Hawks to an
impressive 16-9-2 record. She worked primarily with the defense,
recruited, coordinated travel, and broke down video.
Prior to her one year stint at Saint Anselm, McInnis was the Director of Girls Hockey for Global Hockey and the Boston Lady Rangers run out of the Bavis rink in Rockland, MA. She started girls summer and fall/winter programs in which she was responsible for all recruiting and expansion of coaching staff. Her summer tournament teams have consisted of girls from all over the United States including current and former USA U18 team members, USA U22 members, and USA Senior National Team members.
McInnis is a 2006 graduate of Boston College where she was the
first female ice hockey player to receive a full scholarship in the
programs history. She helped lead the team to a number of firsts in
her career including a Beanpot title and a spot in the top 10
national ranking, both in 2006. While at BC she was named Hockey
East Rookie of the month, Defensive Player of the Week, and was a
member of the Hockey East All-Rookie Team in 2003.
Following her collegiate career, McInnis played two seasons of
professional hockey in Switzerland. In 2006-2007 with Oberthurgau,
and in 2007-2008 with the ZSC Lions. She helped lead both teams to
Bronze medal finishes in the Swiss National A League.
McInnis earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Boston
College in 2006. She currently resides in Pembroke, MA.
