.
Murphy – The Murphy High School press box has been named after longtime announcer J.R. Carroll.
Before Friday’s football game against Swain County, the Bulldogs held a ceremony dedicating the press box. That’s where lifelong local resident Carroll has been announcing games since 1983.
Carroll began his announcing career at youth games in Murphy. He got the call to announce games at the high school level after a lot of the football staff quit following the firing of head coach Mitch Myers.
When David Gentry took over for Myers, Carroll got a call from Linda Kencade, president of the Murphy Quarterback Club, who asked if he wanted to announce football games at Murphy High. He said yes, and a 41-year tradition began.
When she asked what his charge would be, all Carroll asked for was a Murphy Bulldogs shirt and hat at the beginning of each season. And that has been his total pay ever since.
Everyone in Murphy – as well as the Smoky Mountain Conference and beyond, whether they like it or not – knows Carroll’s signature line: ”First and 10, Bulldogs!”
Carroll said he came up the famous line while announcing youth games, and it just stuck. While he takes full credit for his iconic line, he gives Paul Ridenhour credit for coming up with the line, “Welcome to Bulldog country.”
His favorite memory from his announcing career so far at Murphy came in the press box when the Bulldogs were playing a team out of Georgia.
“The 1986 and the 1987 football seasons, Murphy had the best high school football team that has ever played in western North Carolina. I’ll back that statement up to anybody in any classification. We were playing a team out of Georgia. It was a 3 or 4A,” Carroll said.
“They’re sitting in the press box before the game, and their newspaper guy was sitting up there, they said, ‘We’ve had a pretty tough first two games of the season. We kind of need the week off, and we’re glad to get to come up and play you guys.’ I didn’t say anything. At halftime, it was 36-0 and I said, ‘You enjoying your week off?’ His response was, ‘My God, I can’t believe y’all are 1A.’ ”
Speaking on the Murphy community, Carroll called it “home” and “family.”
“I was born and raised here. I graduated from Murphy High School in 1978, Once you’re in that, and I call it the Bulldog family, that’s what it is, your family,” he said.
“I’ve had some health problems over the years. The first time I was hospitalized in Atlanta, The next day I got two vases of flowers, one from Murphy High School – actually three, which was the Murphy Athletic Department, and the other was the football team.
“When my father and mother passed away, representatives from the school, the athletic department and football team were all at the funerals. That’s how I can say that it means a lot.”
Carroll called having the press box named after him “a very humbling experience.”
“I’m honored at the same time. I know that’s a cliche, but it’s not. I consider it a great honor to have it named after me,” he said.
“I really appreciate those that brought this about and want to give a shout-out to the two who worked on it tirelessly for about a year and a half. I didn’t know about it until Wednesday night of this week, and they had to slip up and tell me. I want to thank Joseph Watson, athletic director and head football coach Murphy. And I also want to thank Dr. Wendy Leatherwood, principal at Murphy, for making this happen.”