It was said about Knute Rockne that “once you met Rock, you were his friend for life.” Whether in a train’s club car, a hotel lobby, a newspapermen’s watering hole, or a college campus, Rockne was approachable and affable. He had an encyclopedic memory for names and faces—and the stories behind them.

It didn’t matter if you were a waiter, a Pullman porter, or a leading columnist. Rock would remember you, and remember something about which to needle you. Life, in this view, is a banquet that serves up interesting characters everywhere you look—if your eyes and ears are open.

On the Notre Dame campus, behind the bar at Rohr’s, we have such a person today.

Patrick Murphy, known to all his many customers and campus visitors simply as Murf, has spent the last 43 years filling glasses, telling and listening to stories, lifting spirits and serving as perhaps the most public face of the University.

To say he is beloved by his customers is an understatement. Murf, says one of them, treats ordinary customers exactly the way he’d treat a Notre Dame trustee or a U.S. senator. With a laugh, a story, a “how’s it goin’?” Murf handles his guests, it’s been said, as “a virtuoso handles the different sections of an orchestra.”

What his secret? “Listening,” he says. And he might have added, “Remembering.” For this fast-moving, younger-than-his-years dynamo has an incredible knack for recalling every detail of the story he’s currently telling about this famous figure or some student’s transgression or campus intrigue.

Holtz. Montana. Father Ted. Regis. Muffet. Name any legendary Notre Dame figure and Murf has a story about him or her. Maybe several. “I can sit and tell stories all day long,” he says. And they’re told with a twinkle in his eye. Never to malign, but rather to enlighten the listener on the human interaction that fascinates us all.

And, most vital to his trade, he remembers what every customer typically orders.

“He pretty much remembers what everybody coming in from out-of-town drinks,” says Denis O’Leary, a local regular. “And he gets along with everybody. You’d be shocked to see on a football weekend the number of people who come in here—they may not even have a drink, but they come in to say hello to Murf, because they haven’t seen him in a while.”

And while it’s his public presence that resonates with so many, it’s the many private kindnesses that a lot of folks have experienced that cement Murf’s status as extraordinary. Helping a student through a difficult situation, arranging transportation for someone in need, connecting the right people to one another.

“His people skills are phenomenal,” marvels one customer. “He really cares about people.”

On special occasions, for celebrations, and to soothe tragedies, members of the Notre Dame family have turned to Murf. And he’s always been there for them.

As his Rockne Award states, his has truly been a life of distinguished service.

*Murf was unable to accept his award at 2019 ceremony due to illness. He received his award at the 2023 Rockne Awards.