USU DEBATE COACH TOM WORTHEN '83

It’s not yoga or herbal health supplements or Oil of Olay night cream that keep Professor Tom Worthen ’83 young. It’s debate.

With 31 years of debating experience, 19 of them as a coach, and six conference championships, Worthen is proud to admit he is an official debate geek.

His coaching days began before he finished his bachelor’s degree at Utah State University. When he was a senior, the debate team coach left for Lewis Clark College. No coach, no team. Worthen gave up competing to coach.

As the youngest coach on the circuit, he did not believe he would amount to much, as was evident in the signature he left in a classroom desk drawer at USU: “Tom Worthen, 1983, my only mark on the world. (It’s snowing!).” When Worthen completed his BFA in theatre that year, he left Logan and the tradition of USU debate that had begun in 1889 left with him.

After completing his master’s and doctorate degrees in speech communication in Illinois, he soon found himself coaching the team at Eastern Illinois University, then at Rick’s College in Idaho, the University College of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and eventually Pacific University in Oregon.

While teaching, Worthen went to work for his wife, who founded a publishing company to give young poets and writers across the country the opportunity to have their works published. Financially secure in the new family business, Worthen decided to leave academia and the college debate scene and return to Logan. He picked Logan because of its affordable housing and nearby ski areas. He had always loved Utah State, but at this point did not anticipate he would play a role in education there again.

Having gained so much from his debating experience, Worthen soon decided it was time to give back and teach a debate class for USU students. But there was no money in the university’s budget to hire a new professor. Worthen volunteered his teaching services. The family business was successful and he didn’t need the money. He even offered to donate $4,000 to be paid back to him as a salary, but that wasn’t permissible, so he donated the $4,000 in his mother’s name instead and got to teach the class.

Not long afterwards a fellow professor suggested he coach again.

Being a business owner and father of six doesn’t leave much excess time or energy for coaching. But the heat of competition is a welcome source of stress as Worthen rigorously prepares his team for one of four tournaments in 2006-07.

Donning business attire at six in the morning, two states away from home, the team of 10 shakes off the sleepy haze that would muddle focused minds and get in the way of victory. Some team members wonder if Worthen even requires sleep because, as Shannon Johnson puts it, he is “too perky to possibly be human.”

Worthen drives his team harder and farther than any other team in the Northwest Forensic Conference. His team has the long-distance trip mileage and the conference title to prove it. “While other teams are still sleeping, we get on the bus and we practice,” Worthen says. “That’s what makes the difference, that’s why we win.”
Now in its third year since Worthen’s nearly single-handed revival of USU debate, the team brags its third consecutive conference championship title.

The Worthen home in Smithfield was well-decorated for the celebration. Blue and white streamers hung from the grand balcony over the entranceway. A giant banner over the fireplace read, “Congratulations Conference Champs 2007!” The long table in the dining room was set with crystal, Martinelli bottles and three bronze eagle conference trophies.

As team members arrived, they embraced one another and took turns passing around Worthen’s new baby, who wore the T-shirt they gave him. “Debate Kid” is printed on the front of the shirt in bold letters. The baby’s due date coincided with a long-distance tournament.

Team members greeted their newest member, Worthen’s 18-year-old son Tim.
After dinner and several toasts, the team presented Worthen with an old drawer team member Di Lewis found in her desk at school. She didn’t feel bad taking it because the drawer is obviously his; his name is carved into it along with the year “1983” and the words “my only mark on the world.”

The room full of celebrating students was proof to the contrary. —Natalie Cook ’07