I have no idea if Pat Murphy will be successful as the Brewers’ manager replacing Craig Counsell. Murphy’s an easy guy to like and I wish him well.

A look at some occasions when local teams promoted from within shows mixed results.

Vince Lombardi turned the Packers head coaching job over to trusted aide and defensive coordinator Phil Bengston in 1968. The Packers roster was getting old, but three losing seasons followed.

The Bucks had a success story when Don Nelson replaced Larry Costello in 1976. The results weren’t immediate, but “Nellie” would eventually become the NBA’s all-time winningest coach at Milwaukee and other stops.

When Nelson left, assistant coach Del Harris took over. Harris had already coached Houston to the NBA Finals, so the situation was a bit different.

At Marquette, Hank Raymonds replaced Al McGuire, and Rick Majerus succeeded Raymonds. They did ok, but there was only one Al, even if Raymonds did plenty of coaching in practice while McGuire rode his motorcycle and visited flea markets.

Wisconsin basketball promoted Greg Gard when Bo Ryan left suddenly in Dec. 2015. Gard has had some triumphs and failures. Still, matching Ryan’s success (two straight Final 4s) has proven difficult.

On the football side, Bret Bielema had enormous shoes to fill when Barry Alvarez decided to concentrate on his athletic director duties. Bielema did pretty well but fled for Arkansas.

There’s some of the recent history. Now we’ll watch with interest as Pat Murphy rises to Brewers’ manager.