Before the Rookie: Charles Murphy

There is no Stretch Murphy rookie card. Not in any honest sense. His career ended in 1934, fourteen years before the first national basketball set, so his cardboard starts where Chuck Hyatt's did, on a bookmark the Hall of Fame sold in its own bookstore. This one, though, carries a line that stops you. It calls him "one of first great 'Big Men' in game."

That's the 1968-74 Basketball HOF Bookmark, #NNO, his designated rookie card. Blue duotone portrait, condensed résumé, blank back, about 2.5" × 6.5" of 1960s Hall of Fame optimism. The bio is terse, clipped shorthand: All-State in 1926 as Marion (Ind.) High won the state title; "Big Ten's foremost offensive threat"; a record 143 points in 1929; captain in 1930, when Purdue went unbeaten in conference and 13-2 overall. It names him All American in 1929 and 1930, then closes with a phrase the card men rarely used: "Named to All-time All-American team."

What the bookmark leaves out is the best part. That 1926 title came against Martinsville, 30-23, and Martinsville's sophomore guard was John Wooden. By 1930 they were Purdue teammates.

No known card survives from his playing days. No Exhibit, no strip card, no Wheaties panel. His pro résumé ran through the Chicago Bruins of the American Basketball League and the independent Indianapolis Kautskys, names from before the NBA existed.

At 6'6" he was a giant in an era of guards, and his outlet passes sent Ward Lambert's Purdue teams running. His 143 points broke a Big Ten mark that had stood since 1925. In 1960, only the second class ever, Murphy, Wooden and Lambert entered the Hall together, center, guard and coach. Murphy later ran the Boys' Club in Bristol, Connecticut, and died in Tampa in 1992.

Images: 1968-74 HOF Bookmark front; blue-duotone portrait detail; bio text detail.