Growing up as a son of gospel preacher, Bill Murrell had lived in four states and attended seven different schools. But, it was being a student at Florida College that set into motion his moving to Athens and becoming the long-time baseball and cross-country coach at Athens Bible School. “I had a lot of friends at Florida College from Athens and couple of them were getting married in the summer of 1970. While attending the wedding, some of my friends asked me about my future plans. I told them I wanted to be a math teacher and coach. They told me that their school needed a math and PE teacher and took me to meet the principal Cliff Buchanan. Two weeks later Mr. Buchanan offered me a teaching job and I have been at Athens Bible School ever since,” said the 2023 LCSHOF inductee.

Athens Bible School and Limestone County were blessed that Murrell took the job because they have witnessed the Trojans win numerous state championships across the two sports he led for 50 years. During his iconic coaching career, ABS won one state baseball championship (2008) and finished state runner-up six times. His boys’ cross-country teams won four straight state championships (1977-80) and finished runner-up five times. The girls’ cross-country team finished runner-up in the state two times under his leadership.

The 2023 season marked the last season that Murrell coached and he finished his baseball coaching career with an astounding 910 wins. He has been honored by being inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Sports Hall of Fame and the  Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The honors, championships and wins aside, Murrell said that having a positive impact on the lives of students at Athens Bible School was a top priority for him. “Growing up, my father was called into ministry to spread the word of God and we had to move a lot. I understood why but I wanted to put down roots for my wife and children. Athens Bible School and Limestone County was the right fit for my wife and I to raise our three children. It was very rewarding to be able to coach my two sons, Brent and Brad. Aside from coaching, I have been the athletic director, a math teacher and school counselor at ABS so I had an opportunity to know all of our students, not just the athletes. Hopefully, I have said or done something that has helped them along the way. I always told my athletes to prioritize the most important things in life. Put God first, family second, education third and sports fourth. I had a saying I shared with my athletes called ROE. ‘Reason Over Emotion’. I have had former players come back and tell me that they remembered the saying when they faced tough decisions in life and it helped them get through difficult situations they were experiencing. When I hear things like that from my former players, I realize how blessed I have been in my career at ABS,” said Murrell.

One of his former players, Tracy Lowery says Murrell played a huge part in developing his career in baseball and says it is an honor to be inducted into the 2023 LCSHOF class with his high school baseball coach. “Coach Murrell had a great impact on my baseball career. He was an excellent coach who put a great emphasis on fundamentals. Coach Murrell always had us prepared to execute the fundaments that go into winning close games. He was a coach that had a calming effect. He never made the game bigger than what it was. Coach Murrell stressed to us that all we could do was to prepare and do our best,” said Lowery. Of all of his great coaching achievements, Murrell says two probably stick out the most. “Winning the baseball state championship is one. Especially having come close to winning it so many times. The second is winning the boys’ cross-country state championship in 1979. We had graduated the bulk of our championship teams from the previous two years. Our top five point scorers were a junior, two sophomores and two freshmen. Most people felt like we would do no better than fifth that year in the state. But we won our third state championship by one point.” Said Murrell.

Murrell says he is honored to be inducted into the LCSHOF. “I would like to thank the Board of Directors for this honor. To a coach who probably stayed around too long, it is nice to be recognized and be inducted into a hall of fame with coaches I knew and competed against and with some of the athletes I coached. I was blessed to have supportive parents of my athletes, supportive administrators and wonderful assistant coaches that helped me for many years.

Guys like Billy Hall, Melvin Miller, the late Mike Ogles, Billy Bradford and my son Brad. And of course, my very supportive wife. They along with my players and runners are instrumental in me receiving this honor,” said Murrell.