Harvard football coach Tim Murphy takes a breath. He has the 2013 roster in his lap, but he’s not thinking about that now.

In front of him are a few of his favorite pictures and six Ivy League championship rings. The rest of his office is filled with other awards and mementos accumulated over his 20 years at Harvard. Behind him, on top of his bookshelf stuffed with game notes and playbooks, are a few Coach of the Year Awards and an American Flag presented to him on a USO trip.

But Murphy’s not talking about any of that either. He is trying to think about the hiring process that brought him to Cambridge 20 years ago.

“Oh my god, that seems so long ago,” Murphy said.

After taking a second, Murphy begins reflecting on two decades in an office he’d never thought he’d stay in for this long—the games, seasons, and players that have made it all so memorable.

‘TURNING POINT’

All six of Murphy’s Ivy championship rings sit on a table, neatly spaced, each glimmering in the box they likely came in. But one is special to Murphy—his first.

“I think your first always sticks out,” Murphy said. “That was the turning point of our program.”

In his first three seasons at Harvard, Murphy amassed a 10-20 record. But he could tell he had an improved team in 1997. It was his first Harvard roster composed entirely of players he recruited, and it showed.

The 1997 team took Columbia apart in a 45-7 week one victory. It demolished Holy Cross, 52-14. In conference play, the Crimson beat Cornell for the first time in 11 years. Harvard was still undefeated in Ivy play eight weeks into the season.

But Murphy knew none of that mattered, not if he couldn’t beat Penn. The moment he had set foot on campus years earlier, Murphy had set his sights on the Quakers.

“We knew coming in, when Harvard was way down,” Murphy said, “if we are going to win, we are going to have to go through Philadelphia.”

Murphy was unable to top Penn in his first three seasons. His worst defeat to the Quakers came in a 33-0 trouncing his first year.

The Crimson finally returned the favor in 1997, winning by the same score, 33-0.

“It was as thorough a domination as I’ve been involved in,” said Penn coach Al Bagnoli after the game.