Worley, Huskies' Interception King and NCAA Record-Holder, dies at 74

The UW safety broke the national record in 1968 with pass thefts in seven of 10 games and as many as four in a game.

Elven "Al" Worley, a consensus All-American safety for the University of Washington and the NCAA record-holder with an incredible 14 interceptions in a season, died on December 14 in Eugene, Oregon. Worley, 74, suffered from Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson's disease.

The highly intuitive defensive back from Wenatchee, Washington, pulled a feat that may never be surpassed when he stole nearly every pass thrown his way over a 10-game schedule in 1968, averaging 1.4 interceptions per game.

"I was slow, small, bowlegged and bullheaded," Worley told the late columnist Georg N. Meyers of the Seattle Times.

Only North Carolina State's David Amerson, who had 13 interceptions in 13 games for the Wolfpack in 2011, has come close to the UW player's national record. 

Worley, a three-year starter, opened the '68 season with a pair of pass thefts against Rice in a game that ended in a 35-35 tie on a last-second Husky field goal. 

The following game, he came up with three of the UW's four fourth-quarter interceptions in a 21-17 victory over Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

"I think they were picking on me," Worley quipped after the game, with his three picks in a game setting a conference record. 

In his third outing, a 35-21 loss at Oregon State, he came up with his sixth interception.

Worley had no picks in a 3-0 loss to Oregon at home.

He collected his seventh interception in the Huskies' fifth game, in a 14-7 loss in Los Angeles to USC and O.J. Simpson, who rushed for 172 yards and both Trojan touchdowns.

Worley gained national notoriety when he pilfered four of the UW's school-record eight interceptions in a 37-7 rout of Idaho at Husky Stadium, bringing his season total to 11, one off Bill Albrecht's school record in 1951. He reset the league record for pass thefts in a game in the process.

In week 7, Worley added two more interceptions in a 7-7 tie with California at Husky Stadium, breaking Albrecht's record and tying Oregon's George Shaw for the national mark of 13 in a season, also set in 1951. 

Worley reset the NCAA mark with his 14th interception in a 6-0 victory over UCLA in Husky Stadium, coming with 24 seconds left to preserve the outcome.

"I thought it would never come down," he said of the last-ditch Bruins pass.

Somehow Stanford and Washington State kept him from adding to his total, with both games on the road.

Worley had interceptions in 7 of his 10 games in that 1968 season and he finished with 18 in his Husky career. His longest return was 35 yards against UCLA. He scored once on a 32-yard return against Cal.

Appearing in a handful of postseason all-star games, he picked up yet another interception in the Hula Bowl. 

Al Worley's 1968 caricature.  / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Worley wasn't pursued by the NFL or AFL. He spent a season with the Seattle Rangers of the Continental Football League before turning to coaching. He served as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona (1971-74) and Portland State (1975-78) before becoming the head coach of a U.S. service team in Japan.

Post-football, he worked in federal-government positions in Japan and Hawaii before retiring to Eugene. A private memorial service will be held in Hawaii.

Worley's brother Larry later played for the Huskies as a defensive back. As sons of a janitor of modest means, they were two of 10 children in their family.

"We had a lot of thin days at home," Al Worley told the Times' Meyers. "We were a family of 10 that had to scrape and scrap for everything to hold together. I couldn't believe my luck to be able to get an education and play football at a school like Washington."

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