The announcement Sunday that Troy University had fired women’s basketball coach Michael Murphy should have been a solemn one for the Troy area. Coach Murphy was forced to carry the women’s basketball program through the transition from the Atlantic Sun conference to the Sun Belt with a dilapidated arena that complicated an already tenuous situation in terms of recruiting at the university. No one has represented the university and the local community with more class than Coach Murphy. On a personal note, I have never seen someone that cared more about his profession, the people involved in it, or worked as hard to be successful. I wish Coach Murphy the utmost success and regret Troy University chose this path; it is one devoid of class. I guess Lyndon Johnson was correct: Sometimes your job “is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”

Talmadge East

Troy, via email