Oldest letterman at University of Tennessee owes it all to General Neyland

For 98-year-old former Tennessee Vol baseball player Jim Worthington, life has certainly not thrown him a curve ball, as he has managed to land safely wherever he has been.

“I always said that I believe the Holy Spirit was one step ahead of me all along my path,” he said with a chuckle over the phone.

Worthington, who still lives independently in an Atlanta townhome, is believed to be the oldest known UT letterman not only in baseball, but also any sport, according to UT athletics staff historian Bud Ford.

He is also scheduled to be recognized along with other baseball lettermen at a UT home game later this season, likely May 18 against South Carolina, UT officials said.

Worthington, who is hoping to attend along with some of his family, said he was honored to play for Tennessee, a program that has produced such major leaguers as Todd Helton, Phil Garner and Chris Burke. But the opportunity almost did not happen and required a little proverbial pinch-hitting from the best-known man on the UT campus at the time – Gen. Robert Neyland.

Forget breaking into the baseball lineup; if he had not been helped by the football coach, he might not have even become a UT student. Worthington had 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.

Like a determined batter down 0-2 in the count, though, he kept trying. “I wasn’t going to be defeated that easily,” he recalled with pride. “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 baseball 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.

He remembered that the team did not have an official field initially. They played at Caswell Park and would either practice in a gym or on an old field on campus. In fact, he recalled that the first time they had any live hitting was the first game. However, they managed to go 13-6 their first year, the UT annual said.

The coach the remainder of his time playing baseball was S.W. “Cy” Anderson. “He was always immaculately dressed,” Worthington recalled, adding that he would sit outside the dugout during games. “During practice he would talk for 15 or 20 minutes and talk strategy. He was a good baseball teacher.”

Worthington, who had a little speed, also recalled jokingly that no NIL deals to financially compensate the players existed in those days, but some players worked in the cafeteria for free meals.

His conversational friendship also continued with Neyland, who would come to the games. He told Worthington of occasionally getting into trouble at West Point and throwing baseballs into a pillow in his room while not allowed to play.

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 UT-Chattanooga before working as a real estate appraiser.

He and his late wife, Sallye, a former homecoming queen he met in Sparta, raised three sons, and she had her own business.

Regarding his secret to a long life, besides genetics, he is not sure, other than eating right. Continuing to pull for all the Vols’ teams has also given him lifelong enjoyment.

“I’ve lived a great life. I’ve been so fortunate,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Oldest letterman at Tennessee owes it all to General Neyland