University of Georgia Athletics
‘She Made Us Into A Team’
March 23, 2023 | General, Women's Golf, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Jack Bauerle still has the note that changed his life forever. It was from Liz Murphey to Vince Dooley, written in pen on a spiral notepad with the binding at the top.
In 1979, after Georgia women's swimming and diving head coach Joe McEvoy decided that he wanted to give up the duties of head coach and just focus on coaching divers, Murphey, Georgia's Senior Woman Administrator as well as a very successful golf coach, had to find his replacement. She didn't have to look far.
Long before he was one of the greatest swimming coaches in NCAA history, Bauerle was a young assistant under Georgia men's coach Pete Scholle.
In her note to Dooley, Georgia's athletic director and head football coach, Murphey wrote: "There is presently a young man working with Pete who has the qualifications to serve as our coach but I fear it would take $10,000-$12,000 to do this properly."
Dooley, shrewd A.D. that he was, offered Bauerle, a former Georgia swimmer that loved the Bulldogs and Athens, a good bit less.
"Coach offered me $8,000," recalled Bauerle with a laugh. It was a bargain that worked out well for everyone involved.
Bauerle, who started coaching the men as well in the early 1980s, retired last summer having won seven women's NCAA team titles and coached almost countless individual women's and men's NCAA champions, All-Americans and Olympians. Working under Murphey, he said, was as good as it gets.
"To be honest with you, I had no idea how lucky I was when I started," he said. "Hands-on when you needed it, hands-off when you didn't.
"She made us (women's coaches) into a team. We did outings together, we had our own women's athletics Christmas card, and she was very much like Coach Dooley in that she hired you and trusted you. That's really all you can ask for."
As the 51st edition of the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic women's golf tournament gets underway Friday at the UGA Golf Course, here in the third week of Women's History Month, we're taking a look back at Murphey's outstanding legacy at Georgia.
When it came to having an eye for talented coaches, Murphey's record was extraordinary. Not only did she select Bauerle, but she also hired legendary gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan Leebern, legendary women's basketball coach Andy Landers and legendary women's tennis coach Jeff Wallace. The only one still coaching, Wallace is the winningest active coach in women's tennis and recently became the second coach ever to reach 800 wins.
Between the four of them — Yoculan, Bauerle, Wallace and Landers — they won 23 national championships and 45 SEC titles.
Murphey, who retired in 1996 and passed away in 2005, did plenty of winning of her own as the women's golf coach. From 1978, when women's golf was added as an intercollegiate sport, to her retirement from coaching in 1986, Murphey's teams had multiple top-10 finishes, individual national champions in 1981 (Terri Moody Hancock) and 1984 (Cindy Schreyer), and she was the first-ever NGCA National Coach of the Year, in 1984. She was inducted into Georgia's prestigious Circle of Honor in 2001.
"She was a quiet, unassuming pioneer who turned out to be one of the greatest legends at the University of Georgia Athletic Association, for sure," said Beans Kelly, Murphey's assistant coach and then successor as head coach (1986-2000).
Murphey was great with the players, Kelly said, particularly the mental approach to the game and life beyond the course.
"She was always one to search out new knowledge, and that was very uncommon back then because most coaches, to be honest, didn't know a lot about coaching a women's golf team," Kelly said. "Liz really sought out information and other mentors in the golf field to make sure we had the best possible information."
Murphey also wasn't above having a bit of fun. Kelly, who won seven SEC titles at Georgia and joined Murphey in the NGCA Hall of Fame in 2000, still laughs about their teams' trips to play in Hawaii.
"We were there at a tournament and she, bless her, she went to the beat of her own drum," Kelly said. "She put pineapples in the players' bags. We didn't even know what was going on. One person, Steph Lowe, Murph had put three pineapples and two coconuts in her golf bag, and Steph couldn't figure out why the heck it was so funny. She would do crazy stuff like that."
Today's Georgia women's golfers are very appreciative of Murphey's efforts not only in establishing the program but in building up all women's sports.
"It's so special," senior Caroline Craig said. "Liz Murphey is an absolute legend, is an icon, and just a powerful force for women's athletics. It's powerful just being part of a team that was founded by her and has so much history rooted at this university."
Getting to play at Georgia and play each year in a tournament named for Murphey, one of the longest-running events in women's golf, is "very meaningful," Craig said.
Senior golfer Caterina Don is just the type of player and student-athlete that Murphey would have loved. Not only has Don, from Pinerolo, Italy, had a great career on the course, earning All-SEC and All-America honors, she's also earned multiple academic honors. Don has also served on numerous student-athlete committees.
"Everyone has always told me that you only go to college once, so I think that was my idea when I got here. I wanted to get involved, I wanted to do something," Don said. "In high school, I never had time to do anything other than golf and class. Here, your schedule is so organized that you have time to fit other things in it. I like being part of SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) and LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) and being able to give back to the community as much as I can and inspire a new generation. It's what I love at Georgia apart from playing golf here."
At the Georgia celebration of Title IX event last month, Don was one of the student-athletes that spoke on stage. Without Murphey's leadership and drive to create opportunities for women, Bulldogs like Don and Craig wouldn't be able to have the collegiate experiences that they do today.
"It's impressive what she accomplished for female athletics at Georgia," she said. "We have to be grateful to her if we're here today. At the Title IX celebration, listing to all of the alumni that came back and told us stories about when they were here. How things were different makes me realize how hard they fought for us."
And nobody fought harder than Liz Murphey.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
Players Mentioned
