Philip Gormley grew up in Somerville, graduated from Matignon High School, and attended Boston State College. During his sophomore year in college, Phil joined the wrestling team. Under the dedicated tutelage of head coach Arnie Shaw and future hall-of-famer Randy Whitehead, Phil was a two-year varsity wrestler at 118 pounds, finishing second in the New England State College Athletic Conference in his senior year, when Boston State had its first winning wrestling season.

After college, Phil led the wrestling program at Malden High School, with the able assistance of co-coaches Harry Hinkle, John Lopresti, and the late Steve McDonald. During that era, Malden had numerous sectional placers, three sectional champions (Dom Sardo, David O'Brien, and Dan O'Boyle), and its first state tournament placer finishers. Ten of Phil's Malden wrestlers would go on to wrestle in college, a testament to Phil's ability to inspire young athletes. Seven of those wrestlers followed him to Boston State College (now known as UMass-Boston), where Gormley was the head wrestling coach for six years. Phil coached six All-New England wrestlers during his tenure at Boston State: Michael Ashe, Lothar Batchelder, Ricky Drinkwater, Ricky Field, Joe Laudano, and Dan O'Boyle.

In addition to his coaching duties, Gormley has served as a wrestling official on the high school and collegiate level for 39 years, many of those as an active member of the New England Intercollegiate Wrestling Officials Association. A well-respected referee, Gormley has been selected to officiate numerous scholastic and collegiate tournaments during his career. Phil is a charter member of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Wrestling Officials Association (MIWOA), having joined the association in 1973, and serving as an MIWOA executive board member for 14 years. Throughout his career as a wrestling official, Phil has worked diligently to build a strong relationship between the MIWOA and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Wrestling Coaches Association (MIWCA). He and fellow official Denis Mulvihill co-authored the MIWOA Sportsmanship and Professionalism nomination form. Phil has also served as a mentor to new officials and volunteered as a wrestling referee at the Bay State Games. In 2001, in recognition of Gormley's dedicated service to the sport, Phil was honored as MIWCA's Outstanding Official, and thus is a member of the MIWCA Hall of Fame.

In recent years, Gormley returned to the coach's corner as the assistant wrestling coach at Malden High School under head coach John Lopresti, coaching divisional state placers Derek Henry, Bill Wingerter and Jimmy Cherry. In 2011, after mentoring countless young athletes in three different sports over the course of four decades, Coach Gormley was inducted into Malden High School's "Golden Tornado Club" Hall of Fame.

The legacy of which Phil is most proud is that fifteen of his former grapplers have gone on to coach wrestling at the youth, middle school, high school, or college level. These coaches are John Lopresti, Rick Lauria, Anthony Lauria, Benny Talbot, Dan O'Boyle, Andrew Lore, Michael Ashe, Dom Sardo, Dan Della Gatta, Lou MacDonald, Steve Jesi, John Cullinane, Paul McDonald, Anthony Scibelli and Ken Fielding. Phil is equally proud that three of his former soccer players have had long, successful careers as coaches: Tony Martone, Rich Bransfield, and Bob Patrie.

Wrestling is not the only sport where Gormley has left his mark. Phil has been extensively involved in the sport of soccer since 1973, first as a coach and then for many years as a highly respected official. In recent years, Gormley has participated in the explosion of girl's lacrosse in Massachusetts as a coach, mentor, and official.

In addition to coaching and officiating, Phil has very much enjoyed a 38-year career as an educator in the Malden Public School System, where he worked as a middle school reading specialist, a social studies teacher, and a guidance counselor.

Phil and his wife, Peg, who have been happily married for 28 years, have three wonderful sons, Mark, Paul, and Brian. Phil and Peg enjoy kayaking and traveling together.

In recognition of his many contributions to the Massachusetts wrestling community, Philip Gormley is being honored by the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his Lifetime Service to Wrestling.