Ephblog has mentioned Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy, Williams class of ’96 several times, but until yesterday’s announcement and an email from somebody else pointing it out, I never connected the name with the Chris Murphy who was a freshman playing rugby when I was a senior. Having looked at his video announcing his campaign for Joe Lieberman’s Senate seat, though:
I do kind of remember a guy on the team who looked more or less like that. Only, you know, younger. (In my defense, he played on the line, and those guys were all kind of indistinct and overly well-groomed (no rugby player’s jersey should be that clean…), viewed from my position in the tight five.)
I wish I could say that I remembered something about him that suggested a future career in politics, but honestly, I don’t. I can, however, say that I don’t remember him doing anything that would disqualify him from holding high office, which might not sound like much, but that’s because you didn’t know his more colorful classmates… His greatest risk from those days is probably being in the background of a photo of one of them doing something outlandish.
Anyway, that was kind of cool to find out. And based on a good ten minutes of glancing over his web site, I can say that he seems to be saying the right sort of things. If I still lived in CT, I’d vote for him, but I don’t, so I’ll just wish him well.
(Murphy is the second guy I played rugby with that I’m aware of holding significant elective office– the other is VA state senator Chap Petersen. Weirdly, they bracket my career at Williams– Chap was a senior when I was a freshman (and stuck me with the nickname I was known by for years), and Murphy was a freshman when I was a senior.)
…what was the nickname?
Do we really need to know more about him than the fact that he’s not Lieberman?
Pack not line. You played??