Wendell H. Murphy was a North Carolina farmer, politician, and namesake of the Wendell H. Murphy Football Center. Wendell H. Murphy was born in Rose Hill, North Carolina. In 1960, Murphy received a B.S. in agriculture from North Carolina State University. After graduating from college, Murphy became an agriculture teacher, but soon Wendell and his dad, Holmes Murphy, opened a feeding manufacturing operation. The operation started in 1964 with area farmers in open lots. By 1979, Wendell and Holmes Murphy had started sow and farrowing operations as well. The business is now known as Murphy Family Farms and is a part of the Smithfield Foods operation. In 1983, Murphy was elected to the North Carolina House of Representitives. He represented North Carolina's tenth district until 1988. He was then elected to the North Carolina Senate where he served until 1992. During this time, Murphy received a lot of attention for his work in politics including the Tar Heel of the Week Award by The News and Observer in May of 1987 and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1988. While in politics, Murphy also helped with North Carolina State University athletics. He was a member of the Centennial Authority, which helped develop the RBC Center, the home for NC State Wolfpack men's basketball along with the Carolina Hurricanes and Carolina Cobras. In 1987, while serving as senater, Murphy sponsored legislation that gave 1.5 million dollars for the initial planning of the RBC Center. Murphy then kept working to get funding to the stadium until he eventually got 22 million dollars donated to the project. For his work with North Carolina State University athletics, the Wendell H. Murphy Football Center was named after Murphy in 2003. Wendell Murphy now lives in his birthplace of Rose Hill, North Carolina with his wife Linda. He has four children and seven grandchildren.
