the school's baseball team. After their first season, the ballclub never had a losing record under Worthington again. He coached them until after the 1986 season, when Bobby Richardson replaced him. While he was still coaching, he became Liberty's Athletic Director, a position he held until his retirement in 1989. In May 2011, he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Early life Allan Fulton Worthington was born on February 5, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the seventh of ten children of newspaper compositor Walter B. Worthington and his wife, Lake Worthington. Walter played amateur baseball locally, and two of Al's older brothers, Robert and Walter, played Minor League baseball as well. Growing up, Al went to Inglenook Elementary School and Phillips High School in Birmingham. He attended the University of Alabama, where he played baseball and football. The football team used him sparingly, though, and he stopped playing football during his sophomore year because he suffered a left arm and shoulder injury that was not healing quickly. The Baton Rouge Advocate considered him "lanky" for a baseball pitcher, but Worthington caught the eye of Birmingham railroad employee Dickey Martin while pitching against a local team in 1951. Martin recommended Worthington to his friend Larry Gilbert, manager of the Nashville Volunteers of the Double-A Southern Association, who signed the Alabama pitcher to a $1,500 contract in 1951. Nashville Volunteers (1951–52) With Nashville in 1951, Worthington won his first two starts. He appeared in 23 games (21 starts), posting a 7–10 record and a 4.57 earned run average (ERA) in 124 innings pitched. He did not pitch well to begin the 1952 season; new manager Hugh Poland said the pitcher was "trying to throw too hard for his own good." As the season went on, he improved, evidenced on August 24 when he allowed one run and six hits in 14 innings against the Little Rock Travelers. He finished the year making 30 starts in 41 appearances, posting a 13–13 record and a 3.54 ERA in 221 innings pitched. New York/San Francisco Giants (1953–59) In April 1953, the New York Giants purchased Worthington's contract and assigned him to their Triple-A affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association (AA), where he had a 9–5 record and a 2.90 ERA. In July, he was called up by the Giants, who added him to their starting rotation. Making his major