Murry “Stubby” Trimble, the man who played for coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at Texas A&M and spawned Good Hope’s football program, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 10 at the age of 79.

Although he may gone in body, Trimble’s memory is sure to last a lifetime to the people who knew the Hanceville graduate and 2000 Cullman County Sports Hall of Fame inductee as either an athlete, coach, relative or friend.

He played baseball, basketball and football for the Bulldogs, as well as in three separate baseball summer leagues.

After finishing his prep days, Trimble became the first Hanceville athletic alum to attend a four-year university on scholarship, serving as a superb offensive lineman under Bryant shortly after the “Junction Boys” term made its way around the country.

As a credit to Trimble’s well-known toughness, he hitch-hiked all the way to College Station in 1954 to begin his collegiate career.

He later became an All-Southwest Conference guard and helped his team win the SWC Championship in 1956.

The most impressive part about all that? He did so with only one fully functional arm — he lost part of his left during a childhood accident — thereby earning the label of “Stubby.”

Mike Cupp, a 2007 CCSHOF inductee, played for Trimble on Good Hope’s inaugural team and maintained a lifelong friendship with the latter for the many years that followed.

“He did so many great things,” he said. “He was a great and incredible athlete. A so-called handicap for most people wasn’t for him. Really just a heck of a guy. Athletically, I don’t know of anything he couldn’t do. I really don’t.”

Cupp added with a laugh that he had plenty of stories about Trimble, but not many of them “could be printed.”

The ones he did share, though, left him with a feeling of nostalgia.

When Gene Stallings accepted Alabama’s head coaching position in 1990, Cupp sat down for lunch with one of his assistants, Randy Ross.

Shortly into the meal, Stallings walked in and introduced himself to Cupp, who mentioned he had played for Trimble at Good Hope — a teammate of Stallings during his days with the Aggies.

“After that, he sat down for about two hours and told us some Trimble stories that were hilarious,” Cupp said. “There’s really nothing that I could say about him that wouldn’t be positive. He’s been a friend for all these years.”

Jackie Satterfield, chairman of the CCSHOF, heard the many tales of Trimble growing up but didn’t meet the man until the first induction ceremony nearly 16 years ago.

According to Satterfield, he couldn’t miss a chance to greet someone of Trimble’s stature. Not after all he’d been told.

“I went over there and said, ‘I’d like to shake your hand,’” he said. “It’s something that was an honor for me. It made my day back then. After I did that, he looked at me and said ‘I’d let you shake my other one, but I lost it a long time ago.’”

Trimble isn’t the only one from his family tree with an athletic gift.

His brother, Wayne, played his college football at Alabama through 1966 — also for Bryant — before being drafted in the fourth round of the 1967 NFL Draft as a cornerback.

Trimble’s grandson, Zac Tubbs, who graduated from Cullman in 2002, was a four-year letterman and team captain at Arkansas, where he secured All-SEC honors in 2006 as a lineman.

Cannon and Sawyer Trimble are contributors on the Cullman Catfish swimming team.

Memorial services for Trimble will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church.

Cullman Heritage Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.