Jim Turner, Jets' Super Bowl III kicker, dead at 82
Jim Turner, who kicked three field goals for the Jets in their only Super Bowl victory, has died at 82.
Turner, who would go on to star for the Broncos, died of heart failure with his family by his side on Saturday, according to 9News in Denver.
Turner made field goals from 32, 30, and 9 yards in the Jets’ 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969 after quarterback Joe Namath famously guaranteed victory.
As he told the Jets’ website in 2019, Turner planned to be a teacher after failing to make the roster of the Washington Redskins, who selected him in the 19th round of the 1963 NFL Draft out of Utah State.
However, he was signed by Jets coach Weeb Ewbank the following year, and was on the team for a few years prior to the American Football League’s merger with the NFL.
Turner was not enamored with Shea Stadium’s playing surface.
“It was a dump and it should have continued to be a dump,” he said in the 2019 interview.
Left to right Jim Turner (11), John Huarte (7), Joe Namath(12) Mike Taliaferro (17) in group photo from the Jets’ 1965 training camp AP
“It was awful. I think the Beatles opened it up, and then the Mets and the Jets came in that first year. But because they made it specifically for a baseball team, when you got past the dirt in the infield, from the edge of second base down to the other goal line, it dropped about two-and-a-half feet.”
Turner ultimately kicked for seven seasons for the Jets, making the Pro Bowl in 1968 and 1969, and was with the Broncos from 1971 through 1979.
Super Bowl III champion Jim Turner Getty Images
Turner, who never missed a game in his 16 professional seasons, was inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame in 1988.
He kicked 304 field goals in his career and scored 1,439 points.
After his playing career, he worked in Denver media for several TV and radio outlets, and served the community as an academic coach in the National Football Foundation’s Play It Smart program.
Mary Kay Turner, who was married to the former kicker for 58 years, spoke glowingly of her late husband.
Jim Turner kicked three field goals during Super Bowl III for the Jets. Getty Images
“His legacy speaks for itself,” she told the Denver Gazette. “To me and our family, he was just our husband and our father and our grandfather and we will miss him terribly.”
Turner is additionally survived by three daughters — Lisa, Chris and Alison — and eight grandchildren.
Source: New York Post
