ELIZABETHTOWN — As little boys, they always came to the downtown Christmas parade.
The twins are a little bigger now, having completed their collegiate football careers at N.C. State and Winston-Salem State universities. Larrell and Farrell Murchison, respectively, were the grand marshals for Sunday’s Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce festivities, a drawing card rivaled only by the big guy in a red suit riding in a horse-drawn carriage at the end.
Not bad when only Santa Claus can top your star power.
“It’s crazy,” said Farrell, a running back for the Rams. “I would have never imagined this. It’s exciting. It just feels good to come back and know that your hometown is watching you, and rooting for you, and is on your side.”
Larrell has felt the love as well. The Wolfpack finished a 4-8 season the night before, losing to rival Carolina, but as the sun broke through just in time for the parade, so too did the twin grins. They continued through the parade and through a meet-and-greet autograph session at the Cape Fear Farmer’s Market.
Each recalled with fondness their playing days at East Bladen. Lenon Fisher coached his final year when they were freshmen, and Robby Priest was promoted from assistant to head coach and led the Eagles during their varsity years.
“My freshman year, I moved up from JV for a little bit and played for Coach Fisher,” Farrell said. “At East Bladen, there’s no feeling like it. Being home and having that personal, up-close relationship with your coach, basically, with that relationship you feel like putting it all on the line.”
Added Larrell, a Wolfpack defensive lineman, “Coach Priest, we always looked to him as a father figure and we always looked up to him. And he always looked out for our best interests.”
The duo took the junior college route out of East Bladen, heading first to Louisburg and compiling a 20-1 worksheet in two years.
The bond of high school coach and player grew tighter through adversity. Farrell was diagnosed with testicular cancer during his first year in Winston and later that fall, on the day before Thanksgiving, Priest was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“He definitely called me every now and then and checked on me, and I called him, vice versa, and he was telling me what he was experiencing and I was telling him what I experienced,” Farrell said. “He would tell me the feeling in his hands were gone, and I explained the things I did to get my body going. We definitely became closer.”
Farrell was deemed cancer-free Oct. 21, 2018; Priest got his news about three weeks later, on Nov. 14, 2018.
For all of their lives the football playing twins only knew seeing each other play, or as best they could as they blocked and tackled on the same plays. The first year apart, Larrell was being redshirted at State and he was able to see a fair number of Farrell’s games.
The cancer diagnosis sidelined Farrell the next year, but it also meant he could see more of Larrell’s games.
“This year we made it work,” Larrell said. “I got to a couple of his games.”
Farrell added, “His first game was a week before my first game started. So I went to that game. He came to my opening game because they had played on a Thursday. I played on a Thursday so he was able to make that game. Then I made his game that same week.”
Up next is a chance at the pros. Farrell will participate in the pro day at Winston-Salem State, and Larrell will have a similar event at N.C. State plus an opportunity next month to showcase his skills at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
Should paying for play not work out, their degrees will position them for whatever is next. Farrell majored in exercise science with a minor in sports management, and Larrell majored in sports management.
Farrell can see himself as a physical trainer, in sports medicine, or in athletics as a coach. Larrell said working with youth is a goal, “teaching them what it takes to get to college. Maybe an athletic director, stuff like that.”
Farrell said he can take Priest’s playbook, mix in a few wrinkles, and be successful coaching. Asked if he’d coach, Larrell grinned sheepishly and admitted with a chuckle, “I don’t know about that.”
Regardless of how the future plays out, Sunday was testament that they each have a certainty: Elizabethtown will be rooting for them.
Larrell (left) and Farrell Murchison welcomed supporters by the dozen on Sunday in the Cape Fear Farmer’s Market after serving as grand marshals of the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas parade.
Farrell (left) and Larrell Murchison welcomed supporters by the dozen on Sunday in the Cape Fear Farmer’s Market after serving as grand marshals of the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas parade.
Jayce Hatcher, who played in the Dixie Youth Baseball World Series in August, gets his football autographed by former East Bladen standouts Larrell (left) and Farrell Murchison. Larrell played at N.C. State, and Farrell at Winston-Salem State.
Riding down West Broad Street on an Elizabethtown Fire Department engine, Larrell (left) and Farrell Murchison wave to the crowds.
Larrell Murchison (left) and Farrell Murchison were standouts for the football programs at N.C. State and Winston-Salem State, respectively.
Moving down West Broad Street, grand marshals Larrell (left) and Farrell Murchison enjoy the afternoon in the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas parade.