Kevin Murray hit the big time in fantasy football Jan. 25.
Murray was awarded the ESPN Fantasy Football Commissioner of the Year.
Murray is a chiropractor and owner of Cascade Chiropractic in Covington.
ESPN flew him to an award ceremony May 2 in Bristol, Conn. at the channel’s headquarters. He was able to attend the sports channel’s fantasy football ranking summit with the ESPN staff.
Murray said he was able to tour the sets and meet the staff.
“Growing up, ESPN was everything to me,” Murray said. “They were great people and it was a neat family atmosphere. It was a dream come true.”
Murray was chosen from a pool of 16 commissioners. Each week ESPN selects a commissioner of the week. The commissioners are nominated by the league members.
The pool of 16 is whittled down to four and finally the commissioner of the year is selected.
Murray was selected because his work as commissioner stood out the most.
“It starts with the draft,” Murray said. “It’s an experience. We have custom posters, championship banners, speeches and logos. It’s an event.”
The other way Murray’s work as commissioner stood out was he produced weekly videos.
“I got really creative with the videos,” he said. “I did video recaps each week.”
He creates characters for his videos like Sunny “Hail Mary” Hamilton.
This is hardly Murray’s first stroll with fantasy football. He said playing fantasy football began 22 years ago with the Sporting News magazine.
“I used to fax in my results,” he said.
He would find out the standing later in the week, unlike today where results are nearly in real-time through the internet.
Murray became a fantasy football commissioner and the Murray Fantasy League was born in 2001 when he was in chiropractic school.
“The league took off in 2009,” Murray said, and the rest is fantasy football lore.
Murray said his brother and brother-in-law are in the league as well as other friends and family.
“My league is made up of people who are very important in my life,” he said.
Murray will be gearing up for another year running the Murray Fantasy League and producing his highlight videos once the football season hits the gridiron.
