Former Colleagues, Players Paint Picture of Accused Archbishop Carroll Athletic Director

They all thought they knew him—really knew him. Spend any great amount of time at one place, being associated with that place or school and your name and identity become almost synonymous with it. That’s the way was at . It’s why alumni, former coaches, and former standout sports stars, student-athletes Murphy once coached tell Patch they still can’t believe what transpired last week.

Francis Murphy, 39, or “Murph,” as he was known by those who dealt with him, has been the athletic director at Carroll since 1999. He had been varsity baseball coach since 1998 and was the offensive coordinator of the Archbishop Carroll Patriots football team. Murphy has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation and legal case that thrust him, and the school community into a spotlight nobody wants.

News of sent a stunned ripple throughout the school, the extended Carroll community, the Philadelphia Catholic League and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Murphy is charged with unlawful contact or communication with a minor, promoting prostitution, corruption of minors, attempted corruption of minors, and related offenses. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Murphy's arrest followed an investigation in which police assumed the Facebook identity of a former Carroll student who said he had received messages from Murphy on Facebook. That led to a complaint filed with police.

In an affidavit of probable cause, detectives allege Murphy offered to become the teen's "sugar daddy" and to provide him with athletic equipment and cash in exchange for sex acts. Detectives posing as the teenager on Facebook arranged to meet Murphy. He was arrested when he arrived for the meeting at a Montgomery County ice cream shop April 15. 

Murphy, from Bryn Mawr, posted a $250,000 cash bail and was released from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after spending four days in jail. Under the conditions of his bail, Murphy is not to have any contact with the student who made the allegations, any person under 18, or any Archbishop Carroll student.

A preliminary hearing for Murphy that had been scheduled for Tuesday morning in Montgomery County has been continued, according to a district court 38-1-25 spokeswoman. No information was available on a new hearing date as of late Monday morning.

Since Murphy’s arrest, what has surfaced is a complex, patchwork portrait of contradictions about the head of a Philadelphia-area high school sports powerhouse.

Murphy’s behavior never reached an egregious level of the crimes he’s been charged with, according to those who dealt with him and who spoke with Patch for this story. Murphy has been described as someone who tried to be “one of the boys,” that he behaved “like a cocky older brother,” took unauthorized school trips with students and that he frequently made inappropriate comments to his players about girls, according to those who spoke to Patch.

Former Players React

“I’m outraged over this, everyone that I know from Carroll and that went to the school should be angry over this,” said Kevin Eckel, a 2008 Carroll grad who was a two-sport star in track and football and now plays football for the Naval Academy. “I think it’s disgusting. I had no clue, no idea at all that Murph could be capable of doing anything he’s been accused of. What used to go on though makes you wonder."

Eckel said, “Murph used to make comments. I remember one (football) practice, we’re all talking among each other about girls and things, and Murph asked one of the guys on the team about a girl he was seeing and asked, ‘Did you hit that?’ It was a lot of stuff like, things you would expect players or kids to say to one another, but nothing a teacher or coach would say to a high school kid. He’d hang out with players—and I mean outside of school, and I know he bought guys equipment on the team. So when I heard that this happened, I was shocked. I was surprised by the fact that it was a boy involved, not a girl.”

Jay Stretch is a 1978 Carroll graduate who played on the school's 1976 Philadelphia city championship football team. He came back to the school to coach for three and a half years, as the defensive coordinator from 2006 to the mid-2009 season. He’s now been coaching football for close to 30 years and is currently the defensive coordinator at Monsignor Bonner in Drexel Hill. Stretch, like everyone else associated with Carroll, was taken aback when he first heard the news about Murphy.

“What worries me is that you start to wonder if this may have happened before,” Stretch said. “It’s a real shame, because I thought (recently retired Carroll head football coach) Dan Bielli was great to work for, and we had some great teams there. I really enjoyed my years at Carroll, but when you think back, some things make you think. I remember players telling me how Murph, we’ll just say had some shady things to say about the Carroll girls to players, and I know he would go on trips with kids outside the boundaries of the school. I remember jokingly telling him one time, ‘You better watch out with that.’ I feel bad about the kid that this happened to and how he’ll deal with it for the rest of his life.

“I feel bad for Carroll, and the kids that went there and still go there. My last full season at Carroll we were 10-3, and it might have been one of the most fun teams I ever had. Then this comes and you’re a laughing stock; it is embarrassing. This puts a black eye on the program and it’s unfortunate for Dan Bielli, who deserved better, and the school and the kids deserve better. The fact that Murphy was around there for so long, he did do a lot of good things. But to have these allegations diminishes the good things that he did,” Stretch said.

Carroll Icon Speaks

Those who knew him say there was a difference in the way Murphy dealt with his football team as opposed to the baseball team.

Mike Costanzo sounded as if a great anchor was weighing down his voice. The 2002 Carroll graduate, arguably the greatest baseball player to ever wear a Carroll uniform, still has strong ties to his alma mater. Costanzo, the Phillies’ 2005 first pick in the draft going in the second round, worked with Murphy in putting together the weight room and a golf outing to raise funds for a scholarship. 

“That’s why I’m completely blown away by this,” said Costanzo, now with the Cincinnati Reds' Class AA Carolina Mudcats. “Murph was a great coach, and I just can’t believe something like this happened. Do I want to believe it? No, but something obviously happened. It gives a bad name to the school, and Carroll is a good place. It will bounce back from this. I worked this whole last off-season with Murph, fall and winter, in putting that weight room together. But I didn’t know.

"No one knew—I mean no one knew. I have a lot of friends and nothing even came close to this in conversations. I’m still a proud Carroll graduate. The school did very well by me. I still plan on holding the golf outing and continuing the scholarship in my friend’s name. That won’t change. But I’d rather talk about something else than what’s going on. It’s disconcerting.”

The School's Standards

In past interviews with Patch, now-baseball coach and Archbishop Carroll President Rev. Edward Casey said the school was cooperating with authorities the best it could.

“The legal system will do an investigation, and we’ll deal with that when they’re concluded. The district attorney seems to be doing a very fine job up there, and she knows what she’s doing. And we can’t create stuff just to, you know, placate people who  are looking for more information than they’re entitled to..." .

"I think we’ve been trying to be very up front with everything we have and not hiding or running from anybody with this. Again, communication is very important with this."

Each Archbishop Carroll coach undergoes a criminal and child abuse background check. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Archbishop Carroll have specific rules of conduct about fraternization between coaches and school administrators with student/athletes outside the school domain. Murphy was named athletic director in 1999.

Another Voice

Al Thompson is familiar with the standards. Especially those at Carroll, where Thompson was the strength and conditioning coach from 2001-2007, before leaving for health reasons.

What happened to Murphy “doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Thompson, a Carroll graduate. “Fran Murphy didn’t roll out of bed a few weeks ago and didn’t start suddenly acting like this. Everyone in the Carroll sports community knew he was fraternizing with students outside school boundaries, but not to this extent. The Archdiocese and Carroll have specific guidelines to follow, there is no gray area. He obviously paid little attention to them, and these were rules he was authorized to enforce.”

Thompson told Patch, “When Fran Murphy walked out that door Friday morning, he wasn’t just carrying himself, but a school full of great kids, a school full of championship programs, a school of full of committed coaches and people. He just didn’t care. He was cunning, baffling, and powerful in his authority. It’s impossible for a rational person to believe that suddenly Fran Murphy decided to behave like that.”

Where will the future lead Murphy?

“It’s over, and it’s a shame, because Fran Murphy did do a lot of good for Carroll, but he has no future,” Thompson said. “It’s over. Once a trust like a coach-player, or student-teacher trust is broken, you can’t go back.”