Since taking over the team as the Head Coach in 1970, Don Murray has made The College at Brockport's wrestling program among the elite in all of college wrestling. Murray boasts a career record of 305-72-7 and has posted a winning season in each of his 42 seasons as head coach. The Golden Eagles currently have a streak of 50 consecutive winning seasons, second only to Division I powerhouse Oklahoma State's 52 straight.
Murray captured his 300th career dual victory with a 34-6 victory over Lycoming College on Dec. 9, 2011. The Golden Eagles finished the 2011-2012 season with their first undefeated campaign since 2003 with a 6-0 record. Murray led the team two tournament championships, including the Doug Parker Invitational and the John Summa Invitational, and finished third at the ECWC Championships. Two wrestlers, Tyler Marlow and Paul Glover, advanced to the NCAA Championships. Tom Rispoli and Eliah Golding were both named Scholar All-Americans.
The 2010-11 Brockport wrestling team continued a long-standing tradition of success in both the classroom and on the wrestling mats. Junior Thomas Rispoli was named Scholar All-American by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). Rispoli, a physical education major, also earned Brockport's Male Scholar Athlete of the Year honors on the strength of a 3.98 grade-point average.
The Golden Eagles have captured five national championships (1977, '80, '82, '83, '92), 36 conference championships and three New York State titles. 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 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.
Following the 2008-09 season, The College at Brockport All-American list stands at 132. Shaheim Bradshaw who won his fourth All-American award with a third place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2008 finishing his career with the Green and Gold.
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.
