2002 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE | PHIL WORRELL
For his service to Milligan College as a coach and administrator, Phil Worrell was inducted into the Milligan Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002. Worrell coached basketball for the Buffaloes for 13 seasons, during which time he mentored five players who are now with him in the Hall of Fame. They are: Charles “Toonie” Cash, Don Threlkeld, Dale Clayton, Mark Berg and Jerry Craycraft.
Worrell’s teams had unprecedented success during the 1970s. When he took over the program’s reigns prior to 1969-1970, Milligan had gone five years without a winning season. By his third season, he had built the foundation for a program that would go on to have eight consecutive winning seasons from 1972 to 1979. His Buffs averaged 21 wins over those eight seasons.
In back-to-back seasons from 1976 to 1977, Worrell coached the Buffaloes to Volunteer State Athletic Conference regular season titles with a combined record of 44-23. That followed an impressive season of 25-6 in 1974-75.
Worrell himself graduated from Milligan in 1959 after involvement in the basketball, baseball and track programs. He received his M.S. from Indiana State University in 1965. Until 1969, he held the post of a high school basketball coach in Ohio, and then he found himself back in Tennessee, the head coach of his college alma mater's basketball program.
Worrell was named VSAC Coach of the Year four times in his short coaching career which spanned from 1969 to 1982. His record stands at 230 victories and 150 defeats during those 13 years at Milligan.
Following the 1981-82 season, Worrell moved on from Milligan to accept a position as one of the top assistants at East Tennessee State University. He coached there under Barry Dowd and Les Johnson for four seasons.
Worrell retired in 2006 after 17 years at Virginia Intermont College, where he coached from 1990 to 2002 and served as the director of athletics from 2002 to 2006.
Milligan appreciates Coach Worrell's faithful service to the athletic program, and welcomes him into the Athletics Hall of Fame.