Murphy was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham, and moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, with his family when he was four years old. He was with both CoventryCity and Birmingham as an amateur footballer before his career was interrupted by the Second World War. He turned professional with Coventry City in May 1946 at the age of 24, making over 100 appearances and scoring at a rate of a goal every three games. Manager Arthur Rowe took him to Tottenham Hotspur in June 1950 for a fee of £18,500. He played as an inside forward, deputising for the injured Les Bennett in the "push and run" side that won the League championship in 1950–51. On Bennett's return to fitness, Murphy found himself being played out of position on the left wing, so when Birmingham City bid £20,000 for him in January 1952 he was willing enough to drop down a division to return to the Midlands. When Tommy Briggs left Birmingham later that year, Murphy took up a more attacking role in the team. He was an energetic player with a powerful left-foot shot who was willing to shoot from any distance, and was Birmingham's leading scorer three times, in the 1952–53, 1954–55 and 1957–58 seasons. He retired from playing in 1959 to coach Birmingham's youth team, but was called out of retirement for the last seven games of the season and scored four goals which contributed to the club avoiding relegation to the Second Division. Murphy scored five goals in Birmingham's run to the 1956 FA Cup Final, in which they lost 3–1 to the Don Revie-inspired Manchester City. This match is best remembered for the incident where Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann was injured when he dived at Murphy's feet to collect the ball, but played on in considerable pain for the last 15 minutes of the match without realising he had broken one of the vertebrae in his neck. The following season Murphy scored another four goals in Birmingham's FA Cup run, which ended this time in semifinal defeat to Manchester United's Busby Babes. He was also a pioneer of European competition. He played in Birmingham's first match in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, when they became the first English club side to participate in Europe, and finished that campaign as the competition's joint leading scorer. He also played in the second leg of the 1960 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final, which was the first appearance by an English club side in a European final. Birmingham lost 4–1 to Barcelona. Over his professional career he scored 158 goals in nearly 400 League appearances. For Birmingham his record was 127 goals in 278 games in all competitions, which ranks him third, behind Joe Bradford and Trevor Francis, in their all-time scoring charts. Murphy died in Coventry in 1975 at the age of 53.
