Chris Murray has more than 30 years of experience as a print and broadcast journalist. He has been covering sports on a regular basis since 1994. Throughout his career as a journalist, Murray has covered the Super Bowl, World Series, the NCAA Tournament, the NBA Playoffs and world championship boxing as well as other sporting events. Outside of sports, he has covered the Michigan legislature and Washington, D.C. government.
Murray is currently the host of The Chris Murray Report on WURD Radio in Philadelphia and a freelance writer with the Philadelphia Sunday Sun. He covers both pro and college sports teams in Philadelphia. Murray also writes about sports and race. He is a frequent guest on local sports talk radio in Philadelphia including 94 WIP-FM and 900 AM WURD.
In addition to his work in the media, Murray is currently a lecturer in the Department of English and Modern Languages at Bowie State University. He has also been an adjunct professor in both the African-American Studies Department and the Journalism Department at Temple University.
Murray has had appearances on nationally-syndicated sports talk shows, such as “The Live Stews.” He has also been a guest on regional and national television shows like the Comcast Network talk show, “It’s Your Call with Lynn Doyle,” “Art Fennell Presents,” and the CNN-Headline News program, “To the Point.”
From 2004 to 2009, Murray was a sports writer/columnist with the Philadelphia Tribune. He covered both pro and college sports which included events like the 2008 World Series, the 2009 NCAA Tournament-First and Second Rounds, the 2007 East men’s East Regional Final and the 2004 NFC Championship Game.
Murray was one of two finalists for the 2009 National Association of Black Journalist’s Excellence in Journalism Award in sports writing for newspapers with under 150,000 circulation. In 2008, he was a recipient of the Negro League Baseball Museum’s Sam Lacy Award as its Baseball Writer of the Year. His work as a freelancer has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, the Grio.com, the Boston Globe and the Providence Journal.
Prior to the Tribune, Murray worked as a Lecturer of English at Bowie State University (2001-2003). From 2003 to 2005, he was a graduate student in Temple University’s African-American Studies. He received his Masters degree from there in January 2006. In 2005, Murray wrote entries for the African-American Studies Encyclopedia, edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama.
From 1998 to 2001, Murray was the sports editor of the Prince George’s Gazette Newspapers in Landover, Md. where he coordinated the coverage of local high school and college sports. He was a frequent guest on a local sports show.
Murray also worked at the Journal Newspapers as a sports reporter from 1994-1998. In 1995, Murray won a Maryland Society of Professional Journalist award for Excellence in Sports Reporting. So As a freelance journalist during that time, his work appeared in Washington Post.com and Black Issues in Higher Education.
From 1992-1994, Murray was a staff writer with Army Times. He started his print journalism career at the Newhouse Newpapers in Michigan 1991. As a graduate student at Michigan State University (1988-1990), Murray was a student in the Michigan State University’s Capital News Service program where he worked as a print and radio reporter covering the Michigan Legislature. He was also the editor of the student-run publication, “Focal Point.” In 1990, he was an intern in the sports department of the Milwaukee Journal.
Before attending graduate school, Murray started his journalism career in radio at WEAA-FM radio in Baltimore when he was a student at Morgan State University. At WEAA, he was a news and sports anchor. It should be noted that WEAA was not a student-run station. Murray’s program director at the time was former Congressman and former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume.
After finishing his studies at Morgan State, Murray worked as a freelance Washington correspondent with WOL-AM (now Radio One) and the National Black Radio Network. Murray covered events involving D.C. local government, Congress and various national forums and conferences.
Education: MA African-American Studies-Temple University 2006
MA-Michigan State University 1991; BA Political Science-Morgan State University 1987.
The Chris Murray Report: A Public Forum For Sports, Politics, and Culture 
Chris – could you give me a call? I’m just checking in. You know the cell.
Hi Chris,
Do you remember me from the P.G. County Gazette? I think you graduated from MSU around the same time as my husband, Anthony Hamm. Several of us former Gazetters have linked up on Facebook, but I had no luck finding you on the site. So I tried Google and found your blog. Wanted to say hello and see how everything turned out after the Gazette. Looks like things have gone swell.
Cathy
p.s. – anthony says hello
Hello Chris,
I finally found one of your sites. Just wanted to
say hi. Hope all is well
greyhound girl
have a series on Ariz. immagrant laws would you want it
For The Love Of Money (Part One)
The real deal about college sports
by Gary Norris Gray, BASN Staff Reporter,
The mighty O’Jays with the soft smooth soul sounds of Philadelphia in lead singer Gerald Levert had a moving upbeat song in the middle 1970’s called “For The Love of Money”.
The opening musical rift leads up to booming resounding lyrics of the consequences of loving money.
“Listen to me y’all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You wanna do things, do things, do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money- dollar bills, y’all”
All for the love of money
The NCAA has acquiesced school administrations, coaches, and players by throwing away their moral compass and the concept of sportsmanship. This whole student-athlete charade has become the big business of college basketball and football and they are now openly flaunting this attitude.
This is also the last bastion of servitude in the United States of America.
Colleges and universities make millions of dollars while the young football and basketball players have to wait four years to get paid for services rendered.
These athletes also have to hope they don’t experience a career ending injury playing for their university or college.
Last weekend there was an earthquake a tectonic shift in the football conference playing field. The Nebraska Cornhuskers will leave the Big 12 to join the Big 10.
The Colorado Buffaloes moved to the Pac-10. The Boise State Broncos of the WAC have joined the Mountain West Conference. The house of conference cards almost came tumbling down with the possibility of the Texas Longhorns leaving the Big 12.
The Big 12 staved off losing six prominent teams and all for the sake of the american dollar, television ratings, a secure and permanent spot in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
Next year, UT will receive 20 million dollars while the other members of their conference will receive 17 million dollars each. The Longhorns will receive profits of 2.5 million dollars from their own television network.
This is why Bevo XI and the ‘Horns stayed in the Big 12.
Texas will not be heading anywhere after the two weeks of courting by the Pac-10, the Big 10, and the SEC. They just happened to be leading the pack with fellow conference members — Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech — not far behind.
The Longhorns are noted as being the school with the big wallet and the golden goose. Everyone wanted the burnt orange and cream uniform with the Brahma bull steer head emblem in their conference.
It did not matter how far they would have to travel to play them. It will not happen in 2010-11 season. The Big 12 survived this scare but was severely damaged by the attempted raids form the Pac-10 and Big 10.
“All for the love of money
Don’t let, don’t let, don’t let money rule you almighty dollar
For the love of money
Talking about cash money, dollars bills y’all, come on now”
The creation of SUPER CONFERENCES may still be in play the next few months. Other teams are still seeking new conferences. The is a possibility that Utah State will move further west into the Pac-10 (maybe moreso now since Utah will become a member).
The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame has been silent on the issue.
The Blue and Gold enjoy their independence and a multi-million dollar television contract with NBC will keep it that way. The Fighting Irish will not join any conference until it becomes profitable to the sports programs of South Bend, Indiana.
The BCS refuses to have a playoff. This was the first real threat, the first salvo to their archaic failed system. They leave small school conferences like the Missouri Valley Conference and Historical Black Colleges and Universities with no chance of winning a national football championship.
This recent conference shift could signal the beginning of the end of the NCAA.
You must remember 50 years ago the AAU lost its political power.
The new larger conference alignment could force the BCS to finally concede to a playoff system. Something the BCS has stubbornly fought against. The new super conferences could petition to leave the NCAA if the BCS continues to defy implementing a playoff system.
These college basketball and football teams carry the financial weight of most school sports programs. The larger the institution, the larger the sports programs, the larger equipment cost.
“Money can drive some people out of their minds,
Ah ha for the love of money got to have it some people really need it
For the love of money’’
Legal action may not be far behind…
Last year, the Utah state legislature adopted a resolution calling for a playoff system to determine college football’s national champion after an undefeated Utah was shut out of the national title game for the second time in four years.
State lawmakers contended that the BCS formula was flawed and gaves schools from the major conferences an unfair advantage that would make it impossible for a school like BYU from the Mountain West to win the national title.
The Cougars won the mythical national championship in 1984 when they were a member of the WAC. It’s the last time a smaller school has won the National College Football Title.
This is why the BCS was created and should be dismantled.
For The Love Of Money (Part 2)
The real deal about college sports
by Gary Norris Gray, BASN Staff Reporter,
There is a second issue the NCAA must address in order to move forward to keep the sanctity and legitimacy of the institution of sports in colleges and universities.
It’s the constant issue of illegal recruitment and under the table payments to student athletes by boosters, sports agents, and alumni.
The students get penalized while the coaches, athletic directors, college presidents remain untouched. The coaches are even rewarded with new jobs after being caught or accused of misdeeds.
For smaller schools, an event like this could be a death penalty. The SMU football program had to endure this NCAA penalty from 1986-88. SMU finally abandoned their football program for two years.
It has taken the Mustangs almost two decades to recover. They could not recruit players for two years, they could not play home games for a year and they lost 55 scholarships.
It got so bad that some SMU players had to play defense and offense. Meanwhile, larger schools like USC, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, or Cal will just ride out the suspension and rebuild their programs.
The Trojans got slapped with suspensions and a two year Bowl probation for 2010-11 season. They will lose 30 football and basketball scholarships in the next three years but no DEATH PENALTY.
This is USC’s third infraction in 30 years. The Trojans should have been put in the NCAA Death Penalty box just like the SMU Mustangs. However, the NCAA does not want to lose this revenue producing cash cow nor do they want to see USC going through the same problems SMU had 25 years ago.
“For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don’t care who they hurt or beat
For the love of money”
This is the hypocrisy of highest order by the NCAA. Former head coach Pete Carroll of the Trojan football program rode off in the sunset with a new lucrative rewarding contract from the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Trojan football fans, the American Sports media, and ESPN will blame Reggie Bush, and O.J. Mayo fellow student-athletes. This is not fair or right. What happened to Mike Garrett, Athlete Director and C.L. Max Nikias, President?
“For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
For the love of money
People will rob their own brother
For the love of money”
At least the NCAA did not completely lose it’s collective mind and will allow USC Trojan juniors and seniors to leave the football program and transfer to any university they wish. This will only happen one time.
The NCAA is still gun shy about instituting the death penalty on any university after witnessing the damage done to the SMU football program. It’s a matter of capital now not morals and fairness. As Oakland Raider part owner Al Davis would say “Just Win Baby”.
No Al, it’s just make money, baby.
The next question is why did it take the NCAA legal executives four years to enforce these infractions on the Trojan football program? In other instances, they enforced these same rules on smaller schools immediately.
When the football, basketball, or baseball programs commit these kinds of offenses, the President and the Athletic Directors should be held accountable.
Universities and NCAA executives know what has transpired with boosters, alumni, and sports agents on college’s campuses and they still look the other way instead of taking action.
Even famous basketball coaches like the late great John Wooden had problems with Bruin boosters, Alums, and sports agents at UCLA.
Two-time offender John Calipari of Kentucky should be on the death penalty watch. If he leaves or when he leaves Lexington, the Wildcat alumni better check their pockets and the NCAA rules committee better check his record.
Calipari has left a trail of destruction wherever he has coached.
Just ask the players, coaches, and alumni, at the University of Massachusetts, or the University of Memphis. The Minutemen have yet to recover from Calipari’s shenanigans 20 years ago.
The jury is out on the Tigers basketball program as Calipari took three basketball starters with him to play in Lexington, Kentucky last year.
“I know money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime
Money can drive some people out of their minds’’
Rules have to be changed to protect the school and the student athlete. Rules have to be changed so coaches cannot run away from their knowledge of corruption without paying a dime.
Until the NCAA executives clean up known clandestine programs and known shady coaches this problem will continue to exist. Until the American sports fan request and demand changes this behavior will continue.
Until coaches and schools stop being so greedy the problem will grow.
For The Love Of Money (Conclusion)
The real deal about college sports
by Gary Norris Gray, BASN Staff Reporter,
“Got to have it, I really need it
How many things have I heard you say”
— The O’Jays, “For the Love of Money”
1973, Philadelphia International Records.
As we come to the end of this series, these are some of the solutions to the current problems in college sports.
— If a coach, A.D., or president violates any NCAA regulations they should be suspended for a year. Then that said coach, A.D., or president would have to re-apply to to the NCAA’s excutive board.
— If a school violates NCAA rules and regulations three times within a 25-year period, the school shall receive the death penalty.
— Sports agents may not contact any student athlete without the permission of the school, coaches, and parents. If they do this, they will be suspended for a year.
— Boosters and alumni shall have no contact with student-athletes during the season.
— Universities and colleges shall pay student athletes a stipend for the complete four years of enrolment. Students must comply with passing grades all four years to receive stipends.
— End the 19-year-old age limit and one year mandatory college enrollment program designed by the NBA and the NCAA before entering a professional career.
— Allow student-athletes to transfer when a coach leaves or is fired from a four-year program. The student-athlete should not be penalized by sitting out one year of eligibility after transferring.
— Parents of athletes, children under the age of 16, the disabled, senior citizens, and fellow college students should pay $10 or under for tickets to any university sporting event.
One last issue on this massive problem.
45 percent of African American professional athletes end up broke after their short professional careers are over. This is tragic and reveals the problem of a broken educational system.
The system has forgotten how to teach athletes the management of money.
The athlete has not taken the iniciative to understand how to manage his/her money. The question remains who is responsiable the educational institution, the parents, or the player?
It is now offical, college sports are no longer a game, but big business and all FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY.
“People! Don’t let money, don’t let money change you,
it will keep on changing, ya, changing up your mind.”
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Eugene Cox Jr.