EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Southern Indiana Chapter of the National Football Foundation has both sides of the line covered for its 2015 Scholar-Athlete Banquet. Former West Virginia quarterback Oliver Luck, now NCAA Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs, and graduating Indiana safety Mark Murphy will speak at the banquet, set for April 12 at St. Mary’s Health Manor in Evansville, Ind. The event will open with a social hour at 4 p.m. CT, and the banquet will begin at 5 p.m. CT.
Luck and Murphy earned NFF National Scholar Athlete awards in 1981 and 2014, respectively.
“We are thrilled to have Oliver and Mark joining us to honor our 2015 High School Scholar-Athletes,” said Mike Skvara, president of the Southern Indiana Chapter. “They are outstanding men who represent the chapter in a very impressive way. We hope that people across Southern Indiana and Western Kentucky will make plans to attend – to help us welcome them and to celebrate an outstanding group of scholar-athletes.”
Oliver Luck
Luck is a native of Cleveland, Ohio; a graduate of St. Ignatius High School; and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of West Virginia University, where he led the Mountaineers to a 26-6 upset of Florida in the 1981 Peach Bowl, his final college game.
The NFF selected Luck to deliver a keynote speech at its 1981 Annual Awards Dinner as one of its NFF National Scholar-Athletes. He also earned a Today’s Top Five Award from the NCAA – all after throwing for more than 2,400 yards and 16 touchdowns during his senior campaign. He left WVU with 5,765 career passing yards and 43 touchdowns, and he was selected in the second round of the NFL draft by the Houston Oilers.
After playing four seasons for the Oilers, Luck retired and joined the National Football League as vice-president of business development. When the NFL created an international presence through the World League of American Football, later known as NFL Europe, Luck served as general manager of teams in Frankfurt and Rhein, Germany, before becoming President and CEO of NFL Europe in 1996.
After more than a decade with the NFL, Luck returned to Houston as CEO of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority in 2001. In 2005, he became the first president of the Houston Dynamos of Major League Soccer. The Dynamos won MLS Cup titles during his first two seasons as president.
Luck returned to Morgantown, W.Va., in 2010 to become director of athletics at his alma mater. His efforts resulted in commitments that will lead to $106 million in facility improvements when all projects are completed. He also led the Mountaineers’ move to the Big 12 Conference.
In 2013, he was named to the inaugural College Football Playoff Committee, which completed its first season with Ohio State’s upset victory over Oregon. And in May 2014, he served as a featured speaker during the Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit, held at the White House.
Joining the NCAA staff gives Luck regular opportunities to spend time with and root for his son Andrew, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He and his wife Kathy have another son, Addison, and two daughters – Emily and Mary Ellen.
Mark Murphy
As a senior last fall, Murphy started 11 games for the Hoosiers and piled up 47 tackles – two of them solo stops – with 2.5 tackles for loss, a pair of pass breakups and two interceptions – including a 47-yard interception return for a touchdown against Big Ten Conference opponent Penn State.
In 47 career games at Indiana, Murphy started 42 and recorded 279 tackles (including 174 solo stops), one sack, seven tackles for loss, four interceptions, two INT touchdown returns, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and nine pass breakups.
Murphy was a three-time Academic All Big Ten honoree, and a three-time selection to the Capital One Academic All-District V squad. He earned Capital One Academic All-America honors as a junior and senior, and was one of 17 National Football Foundation National Scholar Athletes named for the 2014 season.
The Akron, Ohio, native attended St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, where he was an Akron Beacon Journal Top 25 All-Star and a Cleveland Plain Dealer Dream Team honoree as a senior.
The Southern Indiana Chapter will announce its High School Scholar-Athletes in the near future. Tickets for the banquet are $35 per person. Tickets and sponsorships are available now from chapter president Mike Skvara at (812) 499-0681. You also may contact him by email at coachskvara@hotmail.com
To join the Southern Indiana Chapter and learn more about the National Football Foundation go to www.footballfoundation.org.
