It is interesting to read what a fellow trainer, Keene Fitzpatrick, has to say of Mike: 

“Mike first started to train at Yale.  Then he went to the Detroit Athletic Club in Detroit; then he came back to Yale; then he went to the University of Pennsylvania; then back to Yale again, and finally back to the University of Penn’, where he died.

“We were always great friends and got together every summer; we used to go up to a little country town, Westboro, on a farm; had a little room in a farmhouse outside of the town of Natick, and there we used to get together every year (Mike and Fitz’) and share our opinions, and compare and give each other the benefit of our discoveries of the season’s work.

“Murphy was one of the greatest sprinters this world ever had.  They called him ‘stucky’ because he had so much grit and determination.  The year after Mike died the Intercollegiate was held at Cambridge.  All the trainers got together and a lot of flowers were sent out to Mike’s grave in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.”

A CHAT WITH POOCH DONOVAN

Pooch Donovan’s success at Harvard goes hand in hand with that of Haughton.

In the great success of Harvard’s Varsity, year after year, the fine hand of the trainer has been noticeable.  Harvard’s teams have stood the test wonderfully well, and all the honors that go with victory have been heaped upon Pooch Donovan’s head.

Every man on the Harvard squad knows that Donovan can get as much work out of his players as it is possible for any human being to get out of them.  Pooch Donovan served at Yale in 1888, 1889 and 1890, when Mike Murphy was trainer there.  He and Donovan used to have long talks together and they were ever comparing notes on the training of varsity teams.  Pooch Donovan owes much to Mike Murphy, and the latter was Pooch’s loyal supporter.

“What made Mike Murphy a sturdy man, was that he was such a hard loser—­he could not stand to lose,” says Donovan.

“You know the thing that keeps me young is working shoulder to shoulder with these young fellows.”  This to me, in the dressing-room, where we have no time for anything but cold truths.  “It was the same thing that kept Mike Murphy going ten years after the doctors said he would soon be all in.  That was when he returned to Yale, after he had been at Pennsylvania.  There is something about this sort of work that invigorates us and keeps us young.  I’m no longer a young man in years, but it is the spirit and inspiration of youth with which this work identifies me that keeps me really young.”

When I asked Pooch about Eddie Mahan’s great all-around ability, his face lighted up, and I saw immediately that what I had heard was true—­that Donovan simply idolized Eddie Mahan.  Mahan lives in Natick, Massachusetts, where Donovan also has his home.  He has seen Ned Mahan grow to manhood.  Mahan had his first football training as a player on the Natick High School team.