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Excellence in field hockey, basketball, softball, and swimming earned Janet E. Murray ’80 induction into the Luzerne County (Pa.) Sports Hall of Fame and Lafayette’s Athletic Hall of Fame, which made her its first woman inductee in 1986.
She also received the Wyoming Seminary Hall of Fame’s Jane P. Diamond and Harry W. Wilson awards and Lafayette’s award as its best female athlete in its first decade of coeducation.
In 1980, Murray won the Charles A. Albert Award for top athletic accomplishment. During her college career, she won 11 varsity letters and never played on a losing team. The 11 varsity teams for which she played owned a combined win-loss record of110-49-9.
As a college senior, Murray captained the field hockey, basketball, and softball teams. She was a two-time Most Valuable Player in field hockey and in basketball as ajunior.
Murray’s field hockey coach at the time, Sharon Mitchell, labeled Murray “the finest athlete I’ve ever coached.” She earned the compliment by being a four-year starter who was talented enough to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team.
In basketball as a 5-foot, 6-inch guard, Murray scored a modest 353 career points, but played in nearly every game over four years. She also had 234 rebounds and 146 assists. In the spring, Murray turned to softball after being persuaded to try out for the team by head coach Pat Fisher. She finished with a career batting average of .318.
Murray is director of purchasing for Consolidated Edison in New York. Before joining the company in 1986, she was a field service engineer for Babcock and Wilcox, Barberton, Ohio, for five years. After earning an A.B. in engineering, she studied at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
Is there a link between the lessons of athletics and the demands of the real world? Murray thinks so.
“I use them every day in my personal and business life,” she says. First is to “always put forward your best effort. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. Raise the bar not only for yourself, but also for your employees. If your employees and teammates see that you are involved and pushing yourself, they will follow.”