- A four-year starter on the football team
- All-New England linebacker as a senior
- As head football coach, Tim has led Harvard University to three Ivy League championships in 13 years, and two undefeated seasons (2001, 2004) in the last six
- Graduated all of his players to date, and has had three players drafted into the NFL, and 10 make pro teams
- Every four-year player recruited by Murphy to Harvard has been part of at least one Ivy League championship team
- Named Division I-AA National Coach of the Year in 2004 after guiding the Crimson to a 10-0 record and the Ivy League title. It was Harvard's best record since it went 12-0 in 1901
- Harvard finished the '04 season as the only unbeaten school in Division I-AA and on a nation-best 11-game winning streak
- In 2001, Harvard went 9-0, its first unbeaten, untied season since 1913
- In 1997, the Crimson went 9-1 and 7-0 in the Ivy League, its first unblemished record in conference ever
- Murphy's record at Harvard through the 2006 season stands at 80-49 (.620) through 13 years, leaving him fourth on the school's all-time win chart. His overall coaching record, which includes two years at Maine 40-9 (.816) in his last five seasons
- Three-time Division I-AA New England Coach of the Year
- Twice named ECAC Coach of the Year, and was the AFCA Regional Coach of the Year in 1987 and 2001
- The youngest Division I-A coach in the country (32 years old) when he took over at Cincinnati in 1989, where he inherited a program that had a condemned stadium and no practice facilities
- In 1993, he led the Bearcats to an 8-3 record, its first winning season in 11 years and its best record since 1976
- His first head coaching job was at Maine in 1987. In his first season, Maine finished 8-4 and reached the NCAA Division I-AA Tournament for the first time in school history
- Member of the Board of Trustees for the AFCA
