Erin “Kiki” Murphy has spent her whole life in the water. From growing up on Cape Cod to immersing herself in water-based sports, Murphy just can’t get enough.
Murphy’s love of the water led to her career as a Division I diver at Northeastern, which was nothing short of incredible. Yet, that was only the beginning of her time as an accomplished Husky. During her fifth year, Murphy turned her flips into strokes and exchanged her towel for an oar, changing her title from a DI diver to a DI rower.
As her final diving season was underway, Murphy was faced with the reality that, at the end of the season, she would no longer be a Division I athlete. Her four years of diving eligibility were about to be over. When talking to her dad about it, he proposed an alternative: Why not join the rowing team?
It was a sport she had already done in high school. It would allow her to continue to compete, and her sister, Maeve, was set to join the team in the upcoming season. She took the jump and now spends her mornings on the Charles River, chasing after a new set of dreams.
Murphy grew up on the Cape as the second youngest of four siblings, all of whom became Division I athletes. Other than sports being a natural part of life in the Murphy home, her time with her siblings on the trampoline helped shape Murphy into the athlete she became.
“I began diving when I was 9 years old, and I was always just drawn to gymnastics and acrobatics in general because we had a trampoline in our backyard. I was always flipping on there with [my siblings],” Murphy said. “Growing up in a beach town, I just loved the water, and I thought [diving] was kind of like a perfect combination of the two. My older sister was a swimmer, so I always would go to practice to pick her up and would see the divers. I just really, really wanted to do something like that.”
In high school, Murphy was a member of the field hockey, rowing and diving teams, but diving was what she stuck with. For Northeastern diving coach Lauren Colby, Murphy’s excitement and passion were the main things that stuck out about her in the recruiting process.
“Speaking to her the first time over the phone, you could tell how hardworking and determined as a person she was. She was a go-getter,” Colby said. “She sounded confident as a 17 year old. She had this enthusiasm to her voice and had a lot of passion about all the activities she was telling me about. She wanted to be one of the best.“
Murphy was just that — the best. She holds the school record in 1-meter diving, was named CAA Diver of the Year three years in a row and CAA Rookie Diver of the Year in 2022 and is a 10-time CAA Diver of the Week — and those are just a few of her many accomplishments.
For Colby, her favorite moment coaching Murphy was the CAA Championship Finals during her junior year. Murphy reached the 3-meter dive finals and was faced with a difficult dive. Typically, Murphy was serious during meets, but after nailing the dive, she could not contain her excitement.
“She comes out of the water, looks over at me and she’s got this huge smile on her face,” Colby recalled with tears of pride in her eyes. “It was just really sweet that there was that acknowledgement, and there was just a connection. She had tough competition, but it was this unspoken thing between us, and we just knew that if she kept doing what she was going to do, she was going to reach her goal of becoming a 3-meter champion.”
Other than her accolades, Murphy was a leader and an inspiration to those around her in the Barletta Natatorium. She never stopped pushing herself, knew how to manage her time and always maintained a positive attitude, her teammates and coaches said.
“She was always so driven, and everyone else on the team could feel her energy,” senior diver and Murphy’s former teammate Anelise Kim said. “I feel like it was inspiring for me, and I’m sure everyone else on the team could say the same. To see her so dedicated, it inspired us to work harder in practice and do our best and throw our hardest dives.”
Murphy enrolled in the PlusOne program, meaning she would stay at Northeastern for a fifth year. But her four years of NCAA eligibility for diving were up, and the end of her diving career was a tough pill to swallow. She had spent 13 years learning the craft, building relationships and perfecting her technique for it all to come to a close on a Tuesday in New Jersey at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
“I just felt like there was a huge gap in my life because it’s all I’ve ever known. I remember I would be doing homework at night, and I would just start crying because I would think of a memory or I would hear a certain song that would bring me back to a certain meet,” Murphy said. “I just love the sport … it was really hard to accept the fact that I was just never going to dive again.”
When her dad suggested Murphy use her final year of eligibility to row, she saw an incredible opportunity she could not pass up. The NCAA allows athletes to take an additional year of eligibility in a different sport, an opportunity not many athletes actually take. While the pain of losing diving didn’t go away, having another sport and new teammates to look forward to helped Murphy through it.
Murphy talked to Roy Coates, the head swim and dive coach, who connected her with his friend Joe Wilhelm, the women’s rowing head coach. After a trip to the boathouse, Wilhelm offered her the opportunity to walk on the team.
“She’s a championship athlete. That takes more than just skill,” Wilhelm said. “Clearly, she was a good diver, but to get to the level she achieved when she was diving, she had to have a lot of the same intangibles we’re looking for in our athletes, which are hardworking, resilient, gritty, coachable. She’s got a great, positive attitude, and she’s got all the physiological tools that a rower would want to have.”
While both rowing and diving are water-based sports, they could not be more different from one another. Diving is an individual sport, but in rowing, each member of the boat needs to be perfectly in sync to be successful. Diving is over in seconds, rowing is not. And the most obvious, diving is indoors, while rowing is outdoors.
Other than the differences between the sports themselves, Murphy had to get used to a completely different training and practice schedule. Rowing season is in the fall and spring, and diving is a winter sport. The diving team always had practice in the evening, but for rowing, Murphy has to wake up at 5 a.m. to fit practice in before classes.
Although it had been four years since she last rowed when she stepped on to the team, Murphy is taking the adjustments in stride and has been enjoying every moment. The coaching staff’s support and watching the other girls has pushed her to be successful, she said.
“I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in just a short amount of time,” Murphy said. “I kind of feel like I’m running against the clock right now, so it’s kind of stressful, but it’s been amazing having a brand new set of goals in a sport and in the lift room and just like working towards those every day. Every single day I’m excited to go out there and get better and to improve in some way.”
Not only is Murphy having her first experiences as a collegiate rower, but so is her younger sister, Maeve Murphy. Maeve Murphy is a freshman at Northeastern this year who was recruited to the rowing team before her sister.
Although they both rowed in high school, their age gap never allowed them to be on a team together, something both Murphy sisters are excited for and have enjoyed so far.
“I love just going to the bus and seeing her. I’m really happy that she’s here now with me,” Maeve Murphy said. “She’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations in life.”
Not only do the Murphy sisters get to be on the same team, but they were in the same boat during the Head of the Charles Regatta, the premier rowing event in the world.
“That was an incredible experience, easily a top-five memory,” Erin Murphy said. “I’ll never forget rowing that with Maeve, too. We were pair partners. It was so fun and surreal being at the starting line and hearing, ‘Northeastern club, welcome to Head of the Charles, row it up to the start line.’ Going under a bridge and hearing our parents cheer for us was just so incredible.”
Murphy dedicated her entire life to diving. She took the late nights on cold winter evenings in stride, went above and beyond in conditioning, and cemented herself into Northeastern athletics history forever. While she still struggles to come to terms with the end of her diving career, she has more time on the water to look forward to and a new CAA title to chase.
“I can’t wait to be able to witness and watch her out on the water because she just amazes me, and I’m really proud that she seeks [this goal],” Colby said. “Seeing her face this challenge is really admirable.”
