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When Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger set out to hire a new athletics director in 2004, he knew he needed someone with the vision to attain national excellence and put Columbia Athletics on par with the rest of the University, one of the greatest in the world. Five years later, there is little doubt that Dr. M. Dianne Murphy was the perfect fit for Columbia.
Now beginning her sixth full year as Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education, Murphy has presided over the three most successful years in recent Columbia Athletics history, including tangible improvements in football, men and women’s basketball, and a combined 11 Ivy League titles over the past three years – the most in any three-year span in school history.
Murphy has been Columbia University’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education since November 2004. In five years at the helm of the athletics program at Columbia, she has demonstrated the same passion and commitment to achieving excellence in intercollegiate athletics that has marked her entire career as an athletics administrator.
She has overseen a number of initiatives aimed at transforming the experience of Columbia’s more than 800 student-athletes. She has undertaken a complete strategic planning process aimed at short- and long-term excellence in athletics.
She has attracted several new high-level head coaches and administrators to the program, and spearheaded the creation of the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame, which had its inaugural ceremony on February 18, 2006. The second Athletics Hall of Fame class was inducted on October 2, 2008.
During the 2008-09 academic year, Murphy spearheaded the celebration of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium Silver Anniversary, honoring 25 years of women’s athletics at Columbia. She also initiated the Leaders for Life program, designed to provide comprehensive leadership training to student-athlete representatives from all 29 of Columbia’s varsity sports programs.
In 2006-07, women’s golf won an Ivy League title in just its fourth season as a varsity program, and women’s soccer won its first-ever Ivy League crown. The All-American Football Foundation recognized the success of the football program under Murphy, and, in March 2007, selected her as one of two recipients of the General Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award for excellence in football.
The Lions’ trend of success continued in 2007-08, when four Columbia teams won Ivy League championships, including the first title in nine years for men’s golf and the first in 31 years for baseball. To cap a memorable year, Murphy was named the Football Championship Subdivision Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators.
In 2008-09, men’s golf and men’s tennis continued their excellence within the Ivy League as the Lions won their second straight Ivy League title in men’s golf and the second league championship in three years in men’s tennis.
Murphy came to Columbia after six years as Director of Athletics and Recreation at the University of Denver, where she led the Pioneers’ program from NCAA Division II to one of the nation’s top Division I athletics programs. Under Murphy’s leadership, eight Denver sport programs made NCAA tournament appearances and, on four occasions, Denver teams won a national title.
In 2003-04, Denver enjoyed its best season when it won the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, placed third in the NCAA Skiing Championship, and advanced to NCAA tournaments in women’s soccer, women’s tennis, and men and women’s golf.
The scope of Denver’s athletics excellence was recognized nationally through the United States Sports Academy’s Directors’ Cup, which recognized the best overall athletics programs in the nation, determined by an award of points based on teams’ finishes. The University of Denver finished among the nation’s top third of athletics programs in each of its six years since becoming a Division I member in 1998-99. In 2004, the Pioneers set a University record when they finished 58th in the Directors’ Cup, in the top 20 percent of all NCAA Division I schools.
Denver’s athletics program served as a model for national and regional academic, as well as athletics, excellence. The Pioneers gained numerous academic honors, among them the Sun Belt Conference Graduation Rate Award, which it earned for five consecutive years.
Prior to joining the University of Denver, Murphy served as associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at Cornell University from 1995 to 1998. She oversaw nine Division I sports, marketing and promotions, sports information and alumni and booster activities. She helped hire football and basketball coaches and was an advocate for the coaches. Cornell enhanced its equity initiatives and increased its fundraising revenues under her guidance.
From 1988 to 1995, she was the assistant athletics director at The University of Iowa, serving as the university’s lead administrator for external activities. She worked on behalf of Iowa’s coaches, and was effective in enhancing a strong compliance program.
Murphy began her athletics administrative career in 1987-88 as the assistant athletics director at Kentucky State University. From 1986 to 1988, she chaired the school’s Division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, served as an associate professor and advised undergraduate students.
Prior to becoming an athletics administrator, Murphy coached basketball for 13 years. She was the head women’s basketball coach at Shorter College (1973-76), Florida State University (1976-79) and Eastern Kentucky University (1979-86).
Murphy was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Administrator of the Year in 2004. She chaired the NCAA Division I Basketball Issues Committee from 2002 to 2004 and currently is a member of the State Farm Wade Trophy Women’s Basketball Player of the Year Committee. She also served on the NCAA Certification and Diversity Committee and the Board of Directors for the Women’s Collegiate Sports Awards, the organization that presents the Honda Award and the Honda-Broderick Cup.
She is active in several national organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and the WBCA. She was named NACWAA’s Division I (Football Championship Subdivision) National Administrator of the Year for 2007-08 and served as NACWAA’s president during 2002-03. In 2004, NACDA honored her as the General Sports Turf West Athletic Director of the Year. The All-American Football Foundation has presented her with the Senior Sports Administrator Award.
At Columbia, she helped initiate the University’s Sports Management master’s degree program. She serves on the faculty as an instructor.
Murphy holds a Ph.D. in administration and curriculum from Florida State (1980), and master’s (1973) and bachelor’s (1972) degrees from Tennessee Technological University. The Tennessee Tech Alumni Association honored her with its 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award. Florida State presented her with its ”Grad Made Good“ award at its 2005 Homecoming.
She lives in Manhattan, near the Columbia campus.
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Olawale and Knowlin after TD vs. Penn
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