Why The Gold Cartel Messed With The Wrong Irishman / A Salute To My Hero

By Bill Murphy          January 10, 2006 www.LeMetropoleCafe.com

Certainly this commentary is self-indulgent, however, it comes about after 7 years worth of feedback from some very sophisticated big money types over those years who have objected to my "in your face" commentary. So, let us call this the 7-year itch thing coming out.

The Café web site membership is mostly made up of very intelligent people from all over the world. The general public (the mob) is not on The Cafe radar screen yet. That is likely to change after the Gold Rush 21 DVD is introduced to the investment world. Thus, I thought this might be a good time to offer some insight to my good friends in The Café, who have been frequenting this joint for so long; a bit of insight about my madness and aggressive "in your face" manner, which offends some of the sophisticates in our camp.

The only way I can start this is to salute the most impressive man I have ever known: my GATA colleague, Chris Powell.

It was his idea to create GATA 7 years ago, almost to the day. I thought this guy was a bit daft, but if he was willing to put up $500 bucks to change the world, what else could I do? All these years, I have been the tip of the iceberg. Chris was the iceberg itself. I received monetary benefits via GATA’s efforts due to increased Café memberships. Chris has worked methodically behind the scenes for GATA, while successfully toiling away at his day job as the editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut.

There is no way any of you could know, or appreciate, the hours … the days, year after year, Chris has put into this. I am talking about dealing with accountants, the IRS, paperwork, gracious correspondence, etc. It goes on and on. If it were not for Chris and his incredible diligence, GATA would have faded away years ago. Think about it. Chris and I have been at this a good deal longer than World War II lasted.

I do not salute my hero Chris lightly. He has surpassed my two other heroes, men I have been so lucky to have known:

*My high school football coach, Bill Horey. He was a Jew out of the toughest Italian neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey … the Weequahic section of Newark. A Jewish football coach was some kind of rarity in those days. Coach Horey was some kind of guy and teacher. He taught me you could achieve anything if you were willing to pay the price. He also taught me it was unacceptable to lose. We never did when I played for him at Glen Ridge High.

You deserved it coach: http://www.njfca.org/honors.cfm

*Which brings me to another of the greats, Dr. Arthur Caliandro, the pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York. When I lived in Manhattan in the Studio 54 disco days of the late 70’s and early 80’s, I went to Marble to hear the legendary Dr. Norman Vincent Peale preach. What a remarkable man that guy was. The lines to hear him give his sermon were longer than at the "in" discos, which was quite something back in those "un-Godly" days.

Soon after Arthur took over from Dr. Peale (of Power of Positive Thinking Fame), we became friends. My brother Tim and sister Kris also attended the Marble services. When I made a killing in the copper market in 1987, I was privileged to donate enough money to Marble to kick in a "I Have A Dream" grant to a group of graduating elementary school kids from a 6th grade class in Harlem. The deal was that anyone who wanted to go to college from that school could do so from there on in. Guess it is time to check in to see how it is all going.

The best preacher in America, my friend Dr. Arthur Caliandro: http://www.wor710.com/marble_church.shtml

Coach Horey and Dr. Arthur Caliandro are the best, only to be topped by my comedian colleague, Chris Powell.

OK, time to move on to the crazy Irishman bit.

When I was a 5-year old kid, living in Wilmington, Delaware, I jumped into a tub of scalding hot water. The skin unraveled from my legs and the doctors said I would never walk again. They were wrong. I did not even have a scar from the incident.

Let’s speed this up:

*Even though my Dad was the famous 5th Down Murphy, the one who caught the pass when Cornell was ranked Number One in the nation, http://www.boston.com/sports/packages/sportsmanship/part2_cornell.htm , I was too small to try out for the Glen Ridge High School football team as a sophomore.

*Tried out as a junior, this Son of "5th Down Murphy." Did so poorly, I wanted to quit, but could not find Coach Horey and could not do so without facing him. Eventually started as a defensive back that year. Played wide receiver my senior year and went on to Cornell to be the "Lonely End."

http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0746639.html

(Perhaps a prelude to lonely GATA for so many years)

The only problem was Coach Harp, who had come from West Point, went to a Winged T, with no wideouts, so I was back to being a defensive back again and started.

Coach Harp was fired, a new coach came in, and let me try out as a wide receiver as a senior. I broke every Cornell pass receiving seasonal record and all the Ivy League single season pass receiving records.

*Our Cornell backfield coach thought I had what it took to make in the Big Leagues. So I drove to Boston to meet with Coach Holovak of the Patriots. He agreed to let me try out for the team as a free agent.

What caught my attention most when I got to camp in Amherst, Mass was that I could beat Jim Smithberger, an All-American defensive back from Notre Dame. However, because of my lack of credentials, I was put on the Taxi Squad, which meant in those days that I would practice with the team, but play with their minor league team, the Lowell Giants.

Then, THE KING showed up. He was a quarterback who was kicked out of the Denver Broncos camp because Coach Saban caught him with six girls in his room after hours. He then went to the New York Jets when Joe Namath was there (Joe is a great guy … a class act whom I have the pleasure to meet). Now, you cannot have THE KING and Joe Namath at the same position, in the same town. Joe was a better quarterback, but THE KING was THE KING when it comes to the ladies.

King and I became roommates and lived in Winthrop, Mass next to the prison and near the Boston airport. There is no way to describe this guy. He had a bullhorn in his Lincoln Town Car. When he saw a girl he liked walking down the street, he would talk to her from his bullhorn. Before you knew it, the girl was falling all over him. He did this almost every day.

Back to football. The King told me I was better than all-pro George Sauer of the Jets, so, since he was The King, I believed him. Sauer, like me, was not fast, but had good moves.

Eventually, the Patriots called me up to join their roster in 1968. I led the wide receivers in pass receptions that last half of the season:

http://www.patriots.com/alumni/index.cfm?ac=alumnibiosdetail&bio=12509

***

Now we get to how this relates to GATA. Back in those days black football players, good as they were, were looked down on. The SOUTH was just integrating the black boys on their teams. The "N" word was still used frequently.

The problem for me was the only lower life kind of person to the PROS back then was an Ivy Leaguer, who were not supposed to be playing PRO FOOTBALL because we supposedly came from privilege and were a bunch of pansies. Really, I mean this. It was bad in those days. Jim Whelan, the All-Pro Patriot tight end out of Boston College, used to throw pebbles at my helmet at every practice, trying to drive me nuts. He loathed me.

The blacks and whites did not hang out together after practice. The King and I were the only whites who hung out with the blacks at their parties after our games. The blacks loved the outrageous King Corcoran and I was of a lower caste than them, thus accepted.

I hurt my knee the next year and the new coach of the Patriots cut me. What happened to The King? He went on to minor league football fame:

http://www.geocities.com/wflphiladelphiabell/BellPlayerPortraits/KingCorcoran74Port.html

Get this. Two years after we parted The King was featured on a 15 minute TV special before the Super Bowl entitled, "The King Wore Alligator Shoes." What do you think that would be worth today?

Let me get to my point.

I was one of the, or THE, last player in Professional Football history to play with only one bar on his helmet, other than the kickers.

It gave me better vision and made me feel lighter since I was so slow. However, the biggest reason was tactical. The guys I was playing against were mostly faster and bigger. I needed an edge. And that was to have them think about punching me in the face. If I could get them thinking that way for a fraction of a second, I had them beat.

All was good except for a televised game against the Kansas City Chiefs. I went over the middle and it was either Bobby Bell or Willie Lanier, both Hall of Fame linebackers, that managed to punch me in the face. Down I went. A bit stunned, I staggered back to the huddle as the sun set on the stadium and in my head.

On the way to the huddle I looked up and saw 6’ 10" 280 pound Buck Buchanan (another Hall of Famer) and 6’ 9" 300 pound Ernie Ladd. That was as big as it got back then. I looked up and thought for a nano-second, if THOSE guys both hit me, I am a dead man.

It was a moment and a game I will never forget since I caught 4 passes for 88 yards against a team that would win the Super Bowl the next year.

The point of all this is perhaps I played with less of a helmet than I should have …perhaps I am playing the gold game today with less than a full deck. No matter … that is The Gold Cartel’s problem.

They have messed with the wrong Irishman, who has no intention of letting down his heroes:

Coach Bill Horey
Dr. Arthur Caliandro
Comedian Chris Powell

By Tuesday you should be able to order the GATA Gold Rush 21 DVD. I hope every Café member will order one, and then spread the word all over the internet. I know this sounds nuts, but I think what we have all done here IS going to change the world, just what that nutty Chris Powell told me we could do 7 years ago.

Get ready!

www.GoldRush21.com

This GATA drill has been the best thing I have ever done in my life. Never could I have dreamt of meeting such fine people as so many of you.

All the best,

BILL MURPHY
CHAIRMAN
GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE