One of the powerhouses of the Texas beef industry will be honored this summer from a not-so-likely source.

Richard Wortham, executive director of the Texas Beef Council, will be inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock on July 1.

“I guess I drew the short straw,” Wortham quipped. “I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet.

“It’s very flattering when there are so many deserving people out there, but it feels good to be recognized by my peers.”

Not that Wortham was any slouch on the mound.

A four-year starting pitcher from 1973-76, Wortham appeared in 75 games for the University of Texas baseball team and played an integral part in helping the Longhorns claim the 1975 national championship.

During his UT career, Wortham pitched a school-record total of 456 innings and had 481 strikeouts, second all-time at Texas.

He’s also the all-time leader in victories for the Longhorns, with his 50-7 record — the first 50-game winner in NCAA history. He remains the second-winningest pitcher in NCAA Division I history.

He went 11-0 as a freshman in 1973, and tossed 12 career shutouts.

Wortham’s finest season for the Longhorns came in 1976, when he posted 141 strikeouts, held opposing hitters to a batting average of .171, and was selected a first-team member for the All-Southwest Conference and All-American teams.

Other highlights of that season include four shutouts, a record of 14-2 and winning the team’s MVP award.

Wortham was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1994. With his selection to the College Baseball Hall of Fame, UT will be represented by nine players.

Wortham played professional baseball for eight years, but none would ever rival those stellar collegiate statistics.

Before returning to the Lone Star State, he played for the Chicago White Sox, Montreal Expos, Philadelphia Phillies and Oakland A’s.

He left the major leagues in 1982 for a business career. As Wortham recalls, he decided to become a commercial real estate broker in Austin, just about the time the market for such properties tanked.

Luckily, his wife, an employee at the Texas Beef Council, gave him a tip about a temporary opening with the organization.

The project, a direct mailing campaign to help promote what was then a brand new program called the beef checkoff, eventually led to a full-time job.

“I started literally on the ground floor and worked my way up the ladder,” he said.

Today, he heads up the Austin-based beef promotion organization for the nation’s largest beef production state.

With his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, Wortham will join such legends as Lou Gehrig of the N.Y. Yankees, a 2007 inductee for Columbia University; Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, a 2008 inductee for Pasadena Junior College-UCLA; and Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox, a 2007 inductee for Southern California.

Wortham said a day rarely passes when he doesn’t remember fondly his days playing baseball.

“I was fortunate then, as I am today, to have some great teams playing behind me,” Wortham said. “My job is to keep the game close and I thank everyone who’s ever played behind me for helping me win more than I lost.

“Whether in athletics or the business world, you have to be flexible with what you do and put your faith in those around you to work as a team,” he added.

“It’s a relationship based on trust, whether you’re batting or working on a promotional program.”

Wortham’s 2010 induction class includes shortstop Alan Bannister of Arizona State; coach Bob Bennett of Fresno State; first baseman Eddy Furniss of Lousiana State; pitcher Don Heinkel of Wichita State; coach Wally Kincaid of Cerritos College; coach-infielder Dave Magadan of the University of Alabama; pitcher-outfielder George Sisler of Michigan; catcher B.J. Surhoff of North Carolina; and second baseman Charles Teague of Wake Forest.

Bobby Horecka lives in China Spring with his wife and three children. He writes for the Texas Farm Bureau’s print publications, online news service and video projects.