Murph: The Protector Page #2

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to go in circles

and then venture out

onto the roads.

Yes! Yes!

Sports was his thing.

He loved it.

He played soccer.

He wasn't wild about soccer,

but he loved baseball.

He loved football and hockey, yeah.

Anything kind of dangerous

he liked.

And so he made the football team.

And Mike in high school

was not the Mike you see

in a SEAL uniform.

Mike was kind of a wiry guy.

He was fierce.

The hardest hitter.

Very small. He was a small guy,

you know.

He didn't weigh all that much.

But he played safety.

And he would just... he would

knock the crap out of people.

And he was fast too.

He was really fast.

He lost his spot to, actually,

Kristin's boyfriend at the time.

And he actually worked with him

to make him a better football player.

That's who he was, you know.

He knew this guy was taking his spot,

but he was gonna help him

get better.

He stepped aside to let

this freshman come up, and willingly,

and mentored him

that entire season, because he knew

that he would be a better fit

for the team in how he played.

After the last game,

which they lost,

the coach came out

and said to the team,

"You know what?

You guys gave up.

Every one of you,

leave your uniforms outside the door.

I don't even want to see you.

Except for Michael Murphy.

You can come in

and you can hand your uniform in,

'cause you're the only guy

that continued

to give 100% out on that field

all day long."

So this is Lake Ronkonkoma.

This is where we worked.

The boys would swim out

across the lake.

They would do it for their workouts.

They would run all the way around.

So the lifeguard stand

was right there

where that white stick is.

In my first year of lifeguard,

he was the beach attendant.

And I didn't know any...

I was at Holtsville Pool.

I didn't know anybody.

You know, I got there.

They walked me in.

They sat me on a bench.

And I hear, "Keenan!"

I'm like, "What? Where is this...?"

He was like, "Yo, it's Murph."

I was like, "Hey, man, what's going on?"

He kind of liked

the gig a little bit,

how everybody was lifeguards.

And he just from there, I guess,

what he thought was he just wanted

to become a lifeguard.

And he worked out and he trained

and the next year

he joined the lifeguarding staff.

And that was my first year.

And we all just became friends

from that point forward.

Jessica was, for Mike...

- we started work here.

- She was quiet.

There was a little quiet girl

working at the beach

who sat down under the shack

reading a book.

Mike starts talking to Jess.

And he's like,

"You're the beach attendant.

You're supposed to clean the bathrooms

and put up the flag."

He's like, "We can't be

having a girl do that."

So then, two minutes, he's got all of us

running down the beach,

the guys cleaning the beach,

dumping the garbages.

- The goose poop.

- Yeah, pick up goose crap.

We're like, "Where did she go?

She's gone."

Like, "We just did this girl's job,

and she's gone."

She comes back.

She's got TCBY.

'Cause I went to my second job.

We didn't know, 'cause we didn't

take the time to find out,

- Jessica worked for TCBY.

- At night.

- At night.

- And that day and many days after

the whole beach won out.

So it was a spoiled crew,

thanks to Mike, you know,

finding that little girl

sitting there reading a book.

- Flower child.

- Yeah, a hippie flower child.

He called her a "tree hugger."

He always wanted to have fun.

And he always wanted

to make people laugh.

And that was his goal,

I felt like.

That's always

what he wanted to do.

I had this minivan that...

it was my dad's family car.

It was our...

we had a GMC Safari

that he passed down to me.

And Mike at one point wanted

to reenact "The A-Team" scenes.

And we would slide the door open

and glide down the road

and he tried to dive in it

while it was moving.

Corey Beach.

And he was so tired.

We had, like, a night

of drinking night before.

- And... can I say that stuff?

- Yeah.

That's all right?

So we had a night of drinking before,

and he was passed out tired.

Michael liked to party too.

So, you know,

he was not one

to miss out on a party.

So I actually went up on a gazebo,

climbed up on a gazebo,

threw a football at him.

And he was like... he was so pissed.

He wasn't pissed

pissed, but he...

and he went looking for me.

I was on top of the gazebo.

And he actually found me

and started throwing rocks at me.

And I couldn't get down

unless he started... you know,

'cause he was pelting me with rocks.

So my parents... they're both

different in their ways of parenting,

but very much the same.

They were always focused

on my well-being.

So whether or not that was getting me

involved in sports to keep active

or STEP program on Saturdays

to keep my interest

in the sciences fostered.

While other kids were going out

and playing video games

and playing basketball, they always

wanted me to be involved in something,

to have my own identity.

My husband and I have very different

parenting styles.

And as a family, you need that.

You need to have that balance.

I was the disciplinarian.

A lot of it was left up to me,

what I wanted to participate in,

whether it was jujitsu

or Boy Scouts.

But some of it

was some gentle nudging

and letting me know

that I had to do something.

So I still appreciate that.

Now I appreciate that.

As a 13-year-old kid,

knowing that I have to get up

at 8:
00 on a Saturday,

that's another story.

I don't care

what you choose to do.

It's your choosing.

We are here as parents

to make sure

that you accomplish that,

to support you on that.

But the only bargaining chip

that we have

is that...

no question about it,

that you have to be

a college graduate.

The first time I ever saw Murph

was day number one

at Penn State.

It was 1994.

And here, a bunch of young kids,

a mixture of being scared

and as excited as hell to be on your own

and out in a big school

like Penn State.

And I'm moving my stuff

into my dorm room

and I notice this guy

right across the hall.

He seemed like a good guy.

We started speaking.

And, I guess,

30 seconds into the conversation

he mentioned he was

from Patchogue, New York.

And I said,

"You're not gonna believe this.

I'm from a little town

called East Moriches,

you know,

a good 15 minutes away."

And, you know,

the connection was instant.

We formed a bond

that first day that...

I mean, I thank God

that it happened.

He's 10 years older

than his brother John.

So when he went into college

at 18 or 19,

John was eight or nine.

And he used to bring John

up to school with him

for about a week at a time.

And I would say to him,

"Why would you have

an eight-year-old with you?"

And he'd say,

"Because he's a chick magnet."

A lot of the times he was referred to

as Murph and that was...

he even tried to get that to stick

with us as his nickname.

Mike was very superstitious.

It was incredible.

Whenever it came to sport...

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