{"id":15143,"date":"2016-08-31T11:39:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T15:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15143"},"modified":"2016-08-31T11:39:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T15:39:17","slug":"hall-of-fame-honouree-murphy-left-a-lasting-legacy-in-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hall-of-fame-honouree-murphy-left-a-lasting-legacy-in-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame honouree Murphy left a lasting legacy in Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though Mike Murphy may no longer have roots in Aurora, the NHL\u2019s Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, legacy lives on.<\/p>\n

In the mid-90s, Murphy Hockey School filled a void in the Aurora Minor Hockey community it continues to serve to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a shot in the dark,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cAt the time there were a few camps here and there, but nothing formal that dealt with entry-level kids. And that\u2019s what we focused on \u2013 kids that wanted to come to hockey school, but otherwise might have been afraid to.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is precisely this level of community involvement that has landed Murphy in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame, one of four inductees to the 2016 class.
\nHaving just taken the position as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996, Murphy was approached by his brother Paul, a teacher, about the idea of starting a hockey school.<\/p>\n

Paul became the administrative brains of the operation, and Mike the on-ice talent, forming a program that would bring in elite teaching talent from across the NHL, OHL, and the world.<\/p>\n

Fellow 2016 ASHoF inductee Mike Kitchen, an NHL assistant coach as well, was one of the school\u2019s first employees.<\/p>\n

The level of teaching talent, as well as the working relationship between the two brothers, was warmly welcomed by the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really hit a nerve with the town of Aurora,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cWe got such a great response\u2026we made it very obvious to the people that sent their kids to the school that it was going to be well managed, well maintained, and we did exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul would go on to be the principal of Our Lady of Grace Elementary School in Aurora. <\/p>\n

After about a decade, when Paul left teaching and Mike became busier with the NHL, the reins were handed to Mike\u2019s son Sean.<\/p>\n

\u201cSean has actually made it even more successful than it was with us. He\u2019s more detailed, he\u2019s made sure that when kids go to the Murphy Hockey School, it\u2019s not just about hockey. It\u2019s about the kids both on and off the ice, as a hockey player and as a student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy credits much of the school\u2019s success to the kind of players it has been geared towards \u2013 with many schools these days looking to further the career of the elite talents, the Murphy Hockey School has tended to help beginners and early developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe camp has been molded around that premise\u2026we\u2019ll take younger, undeveloped players, try to make them have fun, and develop some hockey skills along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is not to say Murphy Hockey School is not among the best in developing hockey talent in the GTA \u2013 between the hockey networks of Murphy and his three sons, teachers that have come through the door include the likes of Ryan Murphy of the Carolina Hurricanes, Mike Cammalleri of the New Jersey Devils, and Michael Del Zotto of the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n

Murphy, who moved to Aurora in 1991 and lived in the town until 2009, had quite a strong hockey resume of his own. In a playing career that spanned 831 games, he notched 556 points between the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, and most prominently the L.A. Kings.<\/p>\n

He served two years as head coach of the Maple Leafs, before moving on to the NHL executive ranks.<\/p>\n

Though he may be working among the most elite names and faces in the game of hockey today as an NHL Vice President, Murphy still sees the Aurora minor system, in which all three of his boys played, as a model for other organizations and leagues to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the state of minor hockey in Canada is excellent,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cAnd Aurora is a microcosm of that. I see great female participation, I see York-Simcoe\u2019s hockey programs as one of the best in the world. I know it\u2019s one of the best in the Toronto area, and Toronto is the best hockey area in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy has been inducted along with Kitchen, assistant coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Sheldon Galbraith, a legendary figure skating coach, into the Coaches category of the Hall. Downhill ski Olympian Karen Stemmle was also inducted, into the Athlete category.<\/p>\n

Next week, The Auroran will highlight Stemmle\u2019s path into the Hall.<\/p>\n

Held annually at St. Andrew\u2019s College, the ASHoF Induction dinner is one of the most spectacular nights of the year in the Aurora sports community. This year\u2019s dinner will be held on November 2.<\/p>\n

More information can be found at www.aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though Mike Murphy may no longer have roots in Aurora, the NHL\u2019s Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, legacy lives on.<\/p>\n

In the mid-90s, Murphy Hockey School filled a void in the Aurora Minor Hockey community it continues to serve to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-09-01-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Wf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 06:08:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}