Jim Turner, who satisfied Joe Namath’s prediction that the New york city Jets would win Super Bowl III in 1969 by kicking 3 basket and an additional point, making him the video game’s leading scorer, passed away on Saturday at his house in Arvada, Colo., a residential area of Denver. He was 82.
The Jets and the Denver Broncos, the 2 groups Turner bet, revealed his death.
Turner played expert football for 16 years, with the Jets from 1964 to 1970 and the Broncos from 1971 to 1979. In the 1968-69 season, he kicked 34 basket and scored 145 points, setting records that stood up until 1983, when the New york city Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh broke the very first and the Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley broke the 2nd.
His success was made it possible for in part by his endurance: He did not miss out on any of the 228 regular-season video games and 8 championship game of his profession.
The most remarkable video game of Turner’s profession was the Jets’s face-off versus the Baltimore Colts on the afternoon of Jan. 12, 1969.
The Colts came from the older and much better developed National Football League, while the Jets belonged to its upstart rival, the Football League. The Super Bowl, held for the very first time in 1967, then pitted the very best group from each league versus the other.
The Colts, led by quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, had actually beaten the powerhouse Green Bay Packers, winners of the previous 2 Super Bowls, to get approved for the 1969 champion.
While Unitas and Shula characterized the stoic masculinity that numerous fans related to football, Namath, the Jets’ quarterback, nicknamed Broadway Joe, was a figure of loudmouth swagger, and none of his public remarks had actually ever appeared less reputable than his warranty that the Jets would end up being the very first A.F.L. group to win the Super Bowl by beating the Colts.
Namath played well– finishing 17 of 28 passes for 206 lawns, making him one of the most Prized Possession Gamer Award– however it was Turner, a distinctly Off Off Broadway figure, who was the definitive gamer. He supplied the Jets with their margin of triumph and alone scored more points than the Colts did.
Turner made his greatest effect in the 3rd quarter. The Jets, winning 7-0, managed the ball for all however 3 minutes. Turner kicked 2 basket of about 30 lawns each, making ball game 13-0.
In the 4th quarter, the Colts’ defense stopped the Jets around the 2-yard line. At the time, the objective posts were on the objective line, rather of at the back of completion zone, making the kick a 9-yard chip shot.
” It is among the most difficult kicks I ever tried,” Turner informed The Herald Journal News of Utah in 2013.
He made it, setting a record (incorporated 1971 by Mike Clark of the Dallas Cowboys) for the fastest basket in Super Bowl history.
He missed out on 2 other basket throughout the video game, however it didn’t matter. The Colts, obstructed by an injury to Unitas and a stout Jets defense, scored just when, on a 1-yard rush by running back Jerry Hill.
Namath’s forecast became a reality, and the Jets won, 16-7.
James Bayard Turner was born upon March 28, 1941, in Crockett, a town outside San Francisco. His moms and dads were Bethel and Bayard Turner. He played football at Utah State, and started his profession with the Jets in 1964.
That exact same year, he fulfilled Mary Kay Roettger at a pool in Crockett. He proposed to her 10 days later on, prior to the Jets held training school. They wed in 1965.
She endures him, in addition to their children, Lisa, Chris and Alison; his bros, Paul, Eddie and Jack; his sis, Pat; and 8 grandchildren.
Turner was traded to the Broncos in 1971 in the middle of an agreement conflict with the Jets. He ended up settling in the Denver location and in later years hosted a sports radio talk program there.
His most popular look in the nationwide media was available in 1969, when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated as an agent of the brand-new impact of devoted place-kickers in football. He provided credit to the total method of his group, and especially to Namath, for the popular function he used the Jets.
” A great deal of individuals slam us for pursuing the basket when we slow down inside the 35,” he stated. “However we can manage to do that due to the fact that we have the high-end of an excellent defense. Joe understands it’ll turn the ball back to him quite fast and offer us another shot for the 7. Naturally, that makes me look a lot much better, getting all those efforts.”
