Bill Turner, a strong candidate for Akron's basketball Mount Rushmore, dies at 79 | Ulrich
It's time again for Akron to honor Bill Turner and his basketball legacy.
One of the greatest hoops players to ever come out of the Rubber City, Turner died on Oct. 14 at the age of 79, his wife of 43 years, Verna Turner, confirmed Monday night in a phone interview with the Beacon Journal.
The family will hold a memorial service for Turner on Saturday in Las Vegas, where he had lived for more than 20 years.
“Bill was kind and loving, so loving,” Verna said.
Born in Cleveland, Turner became a basketball standout at Central High School in Akron and then the University of Akron en route to the NBA. His professional career spanned six seasons from 1967-73 and included time with the San Francisco and Golden State Warriors franchise, Cincinnati Royals, Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Whenever hoops enthusiasts ponder Akron's rich tradition of producing world-class talent, late basketball Hall of Famers Nate Thurmond and Gus Johnson, both of whom preceded Turner at Central in the 1950s, and the NBA's all-time leading scorer LeBron James, a 2003 St. Vincent-St. Mary graduate, should automatically come to mind.
James, Thurmond and Johnson are slam dunks to form a fictitious Mount Rushmore of the best basketball players from Akron high schools.
Who would be the fourth member?
With an NBA resume, STVM's Jerome Lane is certainly a candidate, but when Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame coach Mike Meneer took a shot at the thought experiment last month, he mentioned Turner.
At the time, neither of us knew Turner had died a week earlier. He is a true local legend who visited his hometown many times with family.
“He never forgot Akron,” Turner's eldest son, Bill, said from California. “That stayed with him his whole life.”
Turner had been struggling with health issues for a while. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2015 and died of congestive heart failure, Verna said.
Turner leaves behind four children, sons Bill, Casey and Kevin and daughter Niko Brooks, along with four grandchildren, Verna said. Turner had two sons with his first wife, Dottie, who was born and raised in Akron and attended Central. Verna had a daughter before she married Turner. Their daughter's wedding last December proved to be a powerful moment.
“His last wish was for him to walk her down the aisle before anything happened to him, and he made it,” Verna said.
Turner and Verna met in Los Angeles while they worked together at Pacific Bell after his playing days. They moved to Las Vegas after Verna retired from the phone company in 2000.
“He said one of the reasons why he fell in love with me — I didn't ask him any questions about basketball,” Verna said with a laugh. “Because everybody he talked to just asked him, 'How tall are you?' And then he'd say they'd start asking one question after another and another and another. He was very private, a very private man, but friendly. He used to always tell me friendly, but not familiar.”
Turner was an avid golfer but also a homebody who enjoyed using a flight simulator on his computer, Verna said.
Conversations this week with former University of Akron basketball stars Don Williams and Bobby “Sumthin'” Smith suggested Turner wasn't much different during his college days.
“On the road, he was the quiet type. He would stay in the hotel,” Williams said. “Myself and Bobby, we would go out and enjoy the city.
“We were friends, but he didn't run in my crowd, in the aggressive crowd. But he would crack jokes when we'd be on all those bus trips. In our conference, he was, to me, one of the best ballplayers.”
There is no argument Turner belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Zips basketball players.
Depending on who you ask, Turner may even be UA's greatest of all time.
“He is the greatest player that ever played at Akron,” Smith said. “He was the best. He could get you 20 points, 20 rebounds and block five or six shots.
“That's the first big guy that I ever saw who could really shoot it. He had a nice, sweet jumper from out there at the elbow.”
Listed as a 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward, Turner is the first and only UA product to play in the NBA.
“He was a supreme teammate and a great person,” Smith said. “He was just fun to be around in the locker room and on the floor, and he could flat out play.”
After Turner earned first-team all-district and Beacon Journal All-City selections as a Central senior in 1962 under the late high school coaching legend Joe Siegferth Sr., he became a three-time team MVP in his four seasons at UA and the program's all-time leading scorer. Now his 1,630 points ranks fifth on the school's list.
Turner was voted an NCAA College Division first-team All-American for the 1966-67 season. He averaged 15.4 points and 11 rebounds throughout his career with the Zips, helping them go 87-19 in his 106 games and appear in three College Division postseason tournaments. The 1965-66 team defeated North Dakota 76-71 in a consolation game to finish third in the national tournament.
Turner's 27 rebounds as a sophomore against Baldwin Wallace is tied for second in UA history as a single-game total. His free-throw percentage of 87.6 (92 of 105) in 1966-67 remains the Zips' single-season record among players with a minimum of 75 attempts.
“He definitely knew the impact he had made at Akron,” Turner's son Bill said.
Turner's younger brother, Richard, was among his UA teammates. A standout track and field athlete for the Zips, Richard died in 2006.
Bill Turner missed UA's 1963-64 season because of academics. He improved his grades, returned to the Zips the next season and graduated from UA in 1971.
Times were different back then, and the season off resulted in Turner being drafted twice in the NBA — in the ninth round (78th overall) by the New York Knicks in 1966 and in the third round (27th overall) by the Warriors in 1967. Instead of joining the Knicks, he stayed at UA for his senior season.
The back of a Turner basketball trading card reads, “Bill was recommended to the Warriors by Nate Thurmond.” When the Warriors drafted Turner, Thurmond was in his heyday with the team.
Verna read the Thurmond nugget off a card. Basketball fans have mailed countless cards to the Turner household over the years to get them autographed. One arrived from France not long ago.
“I'm glad to know that he was appreciated and loved by so many people,” Verna said.
In the NBA, Turner yielded his best statistical output when he played 79 regular-season games with the 1968-69 Warriors and posted career-high averages in points (7.8) and rebounds (4.8). In 294 career regular-season games, he averaged 5.4 points and 3.5 rebounds.
“Every now and then, we would sit on the couch together and he would take a stroll down memory lane and tell me stories,” Verna said.
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In those moments, Turner would often mention Thurmond and Johnson. Thurmond graduated from Central in 1959, a year after Johnson.
“They're the ones who taught him to play,” Turner's son Bill said. “From what he said, Nate and Gus would come by his house early in the morning to get him out of bed to go work on their games. And over the years of just getting his butt kicked, he got better.”
Turner was inducted into UA's Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame in 1984. His UA jersey number (42) is in the rafters at Rhodes Arena.
Former Zips hoops player Karl Schwarzinger is working on a plan to pay tribute to Turner again. It might happen in Akron. It might happen in Las Vegas.
Either way, Turner will return to the old stomping grounds he cherished.
“His remains will be in Akron near his mom and dad,” Verna said.
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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Former NBA, Akron Zips basketball player Bill Turner dies at 79
