Jim Worthington, Tennessee athletics' oldest living letterwinner, dies at 100

Jim Worthington, who was Tennessee athletics' oldest living letterwinner, died on Dec. 28 in Norcross, Georgia. He was 100.

Worthington played baseball and was a catcher for the Vols from 1947-49.

Worthington almost never played for the Vols. He told Knox News in April of 2024 interview how Robert Neyland, who was UT's football coach at the time, made it happen.

Worthington spent his younger years in Knoxville off Western Avenue near campus but later moved to Sheffield in Northwest Alabama for his father’s TVA job. 

But his childhood love for the Vols never wavered, so he tried to enroll at UT a year or so after World War II ended and after a stint in the service and helping his high school coach.

However, UT at that time was overrun with male veterans returning from the war and going to school on the GI Bill. As a result, the registrar’s office told him they only had room for in-state students.

“I wasn’t going to be defeated that easily,” he told Knox News. “I went to see Gen. Neyland, and he invited me into his office. We talked a while and I said, ‘Gen. Neyland, I hoped I could try out for the baseball team.’ 

“And the next thing I know, he said, ‘Go to the registrar’s office and tell them I said to admit you to UT.’ So I told the registrar what Gen. Neyland said, and he said, ‘If Gen. Neyland said you are in, you are in.’ " 

But he still had other obstacles to overcome. The varsity program at UT was just getting started again in 1947 after being paused during the war, but a lot of interest existed in playing. He said he went up to the coach, Ike Peel, a former UT football blocking back, and told him of his interest and that he was a catcher. Peel told him good luck, that the team had 18 catchers.

However, he went on to become a regular catcher for three years before a schedule conflict while student teaching at Tyson Junior High kept him from playing his senior year.

Neyland offered him a football scouting position after graduation, but he honored a family commitment and taught and coached at two places before landing at Baylor School in Chattanooga. He later coached football at Chattanooga before working as a real estate appraiser.

Worthington threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a UT baseball game against South Carolina on May 18, 2024.

A celebration of life will take place at the Baylor School in Chattanooga on Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. The family will receive guests beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the lobby of the Baylor School Chapel.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Jim Worthington, Tennessee athletics' oldest living letterwinner, dies