Murphy’s Funeral
Racing driver Jimmy Murphy had already won some $40,000 in race purses in the 1924 racing season. That number was a very good living considering that the average USA worker at the time was making just $2,200 per year.
He had been investing in real estate around his hometown of Los Angeles, California. He owned and loved two German Shepherd dogs. Murphy had a nearly insurmountable lead in the point standings. Things were looking good moving forward.
According to sabr.org, baseball’s Ty Cobb, George “Babe” Ruth, and Tris Speaker each earned $20,000 per year in 1920. The next year Cobb’s salary increased to $25,000 per annum. However, in 1922 Ruth started pulling in a nearly obscene $52,000.
Murphy’s next race was a 150-mile event on the 1-mile dirt oval at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Murphy reportedly wasn’t a fan of dirt track racing.
The fairgrounds track was also known in auto racing infamy. On September 16, 1911 a championship race was held at the track. Moments before the start, US President William Howard Taft made an appearance on the track.
Late in the 50-lap event Lee Oldfield, no relation to Barney Oldfield, had a tire fail on his Knox racer in the first turn. He was battling race leader Ralph DePalma when the accident happened.
Oldfield’s car crashed through the outer fence and struck a group of spectators. Eleven people were killed, and fourteen injured, in the worst racing accident in the USA at the time. The record would be broken in 1969 when twelve were killed at a drag racing track in Georgia.
Six were killed at the Syracuse track, three died before reaching a hospital, and two more died in the hospital. One of those killed was a boy of about 10 years old who was decapitated, and his father died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Oldfield was thrown out of his car and suffered internal injuries and a broken rib. The crowd was estimated at 60,000 that day.
It was the only dirt track the Championship Cars would race on this year. The date was Monday, September 15, 1924. The race also marked a milestone for the fairgrounds track. The past few seasons this race was contested as a non-point paying race, but this time it was a fully sanctioned event.
New York native and rising star Norman Batten earned the pole position for the race in a Duesenberg. He would win fame as the Hero of the 1927 Indianapolis 500 when he stayed aboard his burning race car rather than stop it, or bail out of it, in the pit area. He bailed out near the first turn but suffered serious burns from the incident. In 1928, Batten and Indy 500 veteran Earl DeVore lost their lives in the sinking of the SS Vestris in the waters off the Virginia coast. Both of their wives survived along with the DeVore’s dog Speedway Lady.
Starting on the outside of Batten was Harry Hartz in a Miller. There was a starting field of eleven cars. Murphy started in ninth place and Tommy Milton started in last place, both in Millers that they owned.
Hartz led the first 2 laps before being bested by sixth place starter Phil Shafer in a Duesenberg. Hartz wrestled the lead away on lap 4, but was passed again by Shafer who retained the lead the rest of the race. Hartz was the first retiree from the race when he hit the fence after just 13 laps. Tommy Milton also retired when he struck the fence after completing 83 laps.
Murphy was attempting to pass the race leader Phil Shafer when it happened.
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They had just completed 138 laps. Murphy’s car slid and glanced off the inner rail, then crashed through the inside wooden guard rail. The fence looked like a high wooden horse fence and not a low fence seen at some tracks.
The impact sent a shower of splinters from the boards through the air. A large piece apparently struck Murphy in the chest, sliced through, and killed him instantly.
One report blamed a broken shock absorber for the crash, another that he spun in oil. One newspaper reported that Murphy’s “back and neck were broken and his legs were twisted almost off of his body.” He was 30 years and 3 days old. Shafer won the race that day, it was his first and only Championship Car victory.
Murphy’s body was returned to Los Angeles by train, arriving there at 2:15 pm the next day. His copper casket was loaded onto a baggage car of the Lake Shore Limited. It was the New York Central Railroad’s most famous long-distance train traveling to Chicago, Illinois.
His friends and competitors alike rode with him back home. They included Harry Hartz, Peter DePaolo, Fred Wagner, Phil “Red” Shafer, mechanic Reeves Dutton who lived to be 101 years old, mechanician Riley Brett, Ernie Ansterburg, Fred Comer, and Bennett Hill. Back in California his coffin was draped with a checkered flag and placed in a hearse.
Even with the fallout from the land speed record attempt years prior, Tommy Milton still had a soft spot for the likeable Murphy. After his death Milton stayed behind to get Murphy’s “affairs in order,” including signing his death certificate, and arranging for his car to be brought back to Los Angeles. It was stated that Milton actually wept for his rival in private, and that he paid for all funeral expenses.
A public viewing was held at the Knights of Columbus Auditorium in Los Angeles, and was attended by thousands of fans.
His funeral Mass was held Monday morning at Saint Vincent’s Catholic Church on Washington Boulevard and Grand Avenue in the city. The church wasn’t large enough to house the crowd that assembled that day.
His casket featured a spray of American Beauty roses. His pallbearers were Jack Doyle, Dr. Earl O’Donnell, Bennett Hill, Harry Miller, Fred Swenson, and Riley Brett. There were numerous honorary pallbearers of prominent men as well.
Jimmy Murphy is buried in Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. The property is part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. His final resting place is in the O’Donnell family plot.
His eulogy was given by veteran race starter Fred J. Wagner. “Sportsmanship, like every other moral quality is not instinctive. It must be acquired. Jimmy Murphy, as no other, possessed the quality of a 100% sportsman. Invariably, when he won, he attributed his success to the goddess of fortune. He carried his honors more blithely than any other man I have ever come in contact with in my 30 years as an official. He accepted victory without a sneer or a strut, and defeat without a whimper. He was one in a million.”
The Los Angeles Knights of Columbus Council was renamed to the Jimmy Murphy Council in his honor. There was even a dance named after him called The Jimmy Murphy Foxtrot. His estate had an estimated worth of some $250,000 at the time. That would equate to over $3 million today.
He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998.
Jimmy Murphy officially made 52 Championship Car starts and won 17 times with 6 runners up finishes. He started from the pole position seven times.
Both Jimmy Murphy and Tommy Milton are two of the most prolific board track winners. The only race Jimmy Murphy won that wasn’t contested on a board track was his 1922 win on the bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There was also a report that Murphy won a lesser race at Readsville, Massachusetts on their half mile dirt horse racing track during his last racing season.
Rest in Peace, and may he long be remembered.
