DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997                 TAG: 9705200224

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON

DATELINE: WINDSOR, VA.                      LENGTH:   65 lines

THIS TEX IS NO COWBOY, BUT HIS AIM IS TRUE

It would be neat if you could say Tex Murray clippety-clopped into Windsor 31 years ago wearing a ten-gallon baseball cap, but it wouldn't be true.

The 31 years part is right. Murray has coached Windsor High School to 403 baseball victories, and 175 losses, since 1966, and at age 58 figures he has a couple of more years in him before he hits the bass lakes and golf links for good.

But sorry, pardner, this Tex is no cowboy, unless you count the urban range he rambled as a kid in Newark, N.J. Nor does he ride anything that doesn't own wheels, so horses are definitely out. He does, though, drive a mean team bus.

``If I ever had to ride a horse, I'd be in trouble,'' says Murray, his ruddy face flashing a wide smile. ``I have ridden one before, the kind you rent for an hour. I'd kill myself if I had to do that.''

How Edward Alex Murray became Tex is due to his mother, who wanted to legally name him after her father, Tex. But being a good Catholic, she was compelled to choose a saint's name. ``And there's no St. Tex,'' says Murray, who has carried his nickname since infancy.

How Murray became the state's third-winningest active baseball coach, as best as can be determined, is due to his endless enthusiasm for the game and Windsor's dedicated baseball community, which has supplied him solid players.

There's never been a Division I college player among them, but Murray has had one, Terry Bradshaw, make the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals. Bradshaw, who was drafted by the Yankees out of high school but didn't sign, was drafted again by St. Louis after attending Norfolk State. An outfielder, he is back in Triple-A with the Cardinals this season.

``This is true,'' Murray says. ``When Terry was a freshman, I told all my friends that I had a major league player. He had all the tools. And you couldn't get him off the field.''

Murray's latest team carries a 14-3 record into today's opening game of the Group A Tri-Rivers District tournament. A victory over Sussex Central would put Windsor into the region playoffs for the 15th year in a row, though Murray's never lassoed a state title. The closest he's come was three years ago with a loss in the state semifinals.

Murray still wears a couple of hats as a phys-ed teacher and athletic director, but he quit coaching basketball in 1980 after 14 seasons. It was time to go, he says, when he started looking at his watch more than at his team during practices.

Ironically, basketball is what brought him here. Murray attended Frederick College, now the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College, as a 5-foot-9 guard on a basketball scholarship.

After graduation in '65, he married his wife, Frances, and moved to Churchland, where they've raised three children. In '66 he came to Windsor, and the moving stopped. Murray says he has interviewed for only one other job - as Norcom's basketball coach in the '70s, which he turned down - and has never sent out a resume.

``I'm a creature of habit,'' Murray says. ``If I like a meal at a restaurant, I'll probably go there 10 times in a row and order the same thing. I'd probably go the same route.''

Even if it meant again being one of the most misnamed 'pokes east of the Rio Grande, He did visit San Antonio once, though. Picked himself up a souvenir cowboy hat. But no boots.

``Boots,'' Tex Murray says, ``hurt my feet.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

In 31 years, Tex Murray has coached Windsor's baseball teams to 403

wins.

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