As a team, the Golden Eagles went 9-1 in dual meets this past year as the legendary coach secured his 50th year without a losing season. He is believed to be the only coach in NCAA history that has ever achieved this feat. Brockport placed third as a team at the NCAA Regional and also placed second at the New York State College Tournament. Murray also holds the distinction of longest active tenured coach in any sport in Division III.
The College at Brockport's Golden Eagle Wrestling program has built a winning tradition that continued in 2018 with its 55th consecutive winning season. For 49 of those years, Head Coach Donald Murray has engineered an enviable record of achievements which stands as a testament to his lifetime dedication to Brockport wrestlers, the Brockport student body, the alumni, to NCAA, USA and the international wrestling community.
With an impressive record of five NCAA team titles, 13 Final Four appearances, a National Dual Meet championship, 36 Conference and three New York State Collegiate titles, a dual meet record of 351-81-7 and 143 All-Americans, Coach Murray has gained the admiration and respect of wrestlers, coaches and spectators alike. In addition, Murray joined legendary Iowa coach Dan Gable as two of three coaches to have coached 100 or more collegiate All-Americans. On April 12, 2014, Murray was inducted into the Nassau Community College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Success continued in 2018, as Murray and the Golden Eagles sent three wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, including Jonathan Hass in the 125-lb class, Triston Engle in the 197-lb class and Sean Peacock in the 149-lb class. In addition, All three of those athletes earned the status of All-American after their 2018 campaigns.
Murray coached two more wrestlers to All-American status in 2017, as Jonathan Haas and Triston Engle finished 3rd and 4th in their respective weight classes. Overall, Brockport finished 8th in the national tournament, marking the 28th time a Don Murray coached team has finished in the top 10.
Murray was honored in 2016 as the recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award from The College at Brockport for his relentless dedication to the overall wellbeing of the Brockport campus and community. He's also consistently been recognized as one of the faculty or staff members that has had a positive influence on the most Brockport graduates, as voted by alumni in an annual survey.
In 2013-14, the Golden Eagles continued the winning tradition, finishing 5-1 in dual meets. Senior Paul Glover won the Eastern Michigan Open at 197 pounds and was also crowned an All-American at the NCAA National Championships with an eighth place finish. Senior Matt Ellis was the top finisher for the Golden Eagles at the NCAA National Championships, earning All-American honors with a sixth place finish.
The 2012-13 marked 50 years of winning seasons for the Golden Eagles, a record second only to Oklahoma State's 52 year win streak and with an 8th place finish for Matt Ellis at the 2013 Division III Tournament Brockport posted its 133rd All-American since its beginning in 1962.
In addition in to his team's accomplishments, Coach Murray has been named the SUNYAC/Empire Coach of the Year six times (1981, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1991, 2003), New York State Wrestling Coach of the Year three times (1980, 1983, 2000), and National Division III Coach of the Year twice (1980, 1992). Murray was named USA Wrestling's Person of the Year and FILA Junior World University Leader of the Year in 2007. In 1980, he also was named AAU Man of the Year, given to the person contributing the most to national and international wrestling. Murray was named to the New York State and NCAA Division III Coaches Halls of Fame.
Murray’s involvement in international wrestling allowed the College to hold the National Training Camp for both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers for the ’76 Olympics. Three times the U.S. Senior World and Junior World Championships have been held at Brockport. Both in ’76 and ’80, the final wrestle-offs for the freestyle and Greco-Roman Olympic teams were held at the College. In 1992, 1996 and again in the spring of 2002, Brockport hosted the East Regional Olympic Trials.
As chief of the delegation to the Junior World Championships in Vancouver, Murray has been to Norway as team leader for the Senior World Greco-Roman team, and coached the East team in the Annual East-West All-Star Meet in 1984 and 1993.
In the summer of 1998, Murray was the U.S. Team Leader at the Sixth World Junior Greco-Roman Championships in Cairo, Egypt. The day after he returned from Egypt, Murray was inducted into the Frontier Field Walk of Fame as an outstanding contributor to the Rochester sports scene. Also in the summer of 1998, Murray was named the Junior (wrestlers under 20) Person of the Year by USA Wrestling.
Among his experience with national squads, Murray was the head coach of the 1975 US Junior World Team that competed in the international championships in Bulgaria, and in the summer of 1990 he coached USA Wrestling's Tour de Monde team at the first Grand Prix Tournament in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Murray also has served as an assistant on three different US Senior World Teams that traveled to the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Mexico.
On campus, Murray has received a SUNY Chancellor's Award of Excellence for Outstanding Service to the College for his academic work with student-athletes and for his high graduation rate. He also has received a Brockport Student Government Award and been honored with two Faculty Senate proclamations for excellence.
