Jim Murdock (1992) - MSU Athletics Hall of Fame

Jim Murdock

Induction:
1992
Class:
1964

JIM MURDOCK
Track, 1962-64
Inducted January 25, 1992

Jim Murdock was a versatile standout from Missouri State as a three-year letterman in track from 1962 to 1964, competing as a jumper, sprinter, relay man, shot putter and discus and javelin thrower. His best event was the javelin in a career during which he became one of only three MSU athletes ever to throw the javelin farther than 200 feet. A native of Seneca, Missouri, Murdock came to MSU after a year at Joplin Junior College and competed for Coach Aldo Sebben and helped the Bears to three consecutive third-place finishes behind Northeast Missouri State and Central Missouri State in both the MIAA indoor and outdoor championships. Murdock won his specialty at the number of dual and triangular meets throughout his career and captured his first MIAA javelin title in the 1962 league outdoor meet. Murdock finished third in the javelin in the 1963 Kansas Relays and won his second straight MSU Relays javelin title. He topped the 200-foot mark with a throw of 213 feet, 11 inches, in April and repeated his conference title in May with a new league mark of 198 feet, 7 inches. His victory in the 1963 league meet topped by 10 inches the oldest existing outdoor track record on the MIAA books, a mark which had stood since 1928. Murdock placed third in the 1963 AAU District meet. As a senior in 1964, he boosted the MSU record to 223 feet, and won his third straight conference championship, again setting a new league record with a throw of 220 feet, 3 inches. Murdock was also fourth in the MIAA in the discus in 1964. He won the 1964 NCAA Division II regional crown in the javelin in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and set a new meet record in that event. He then competed in his specialty in the NCAA Division II national meet in Fresno, California, where he finished fifth.