Turlington retires after 50 years

By MIKE McCOY

Statesman Staff Writer

Dexter native Terry Turlington has officiated in every major bowl game during his career, including the 2008 NCAA National Championship when Louisiana State University defeated Ohio State University in the Superdome in New Orleans. His long officating career in both football and basketball came to an end in December. He was the replay official in the regular season game between Big 12 rivals Baylor and Kansas State. Baylor upset Kansas State, which was ranked number one at the time. He officially entered retirement at the end of the 2012 college football season.

Turlington's officiating career began in 1962 when he graduated from the University of Missouri. He went to MU on a full basketball scholarship from Dexter High School. His first game to officiate was a high school football game between Eldon, Mo., and California, Mo. He lived in Columbia after taking a job as coach at West Junior High there.

After one year in Columbia, Turlington returned to coach varsity basketball at Kennett. He spent 40 years in the Kennett school system as basketball coach and later as high school principal. During that time, he was a high school referee in the Bootheel, which included games at the Bloomfield gymnasium during the Christmas Tournament. He was friends with Dexter Coach Jim Hall, a teammate in high school, and Charlie Spoonhour, who coached at Bloomfield. Spoonhour went on to earn national recognition as a coach at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) in Springfield and the University of St. Louis. He guided both teams, who were not well known nationally, to appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, Turlington was building a reputation as both a referee and a football official. In 1978 he was tapped to officiate in the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a conference made up of the smaller Missouri colleges. He made trips to Warrensburg, St. Louis, Springfield and all over the state. In 1978 he was hired to referee in the Missouri Valley Conference and the Metro Conference. He officiated football games in those conferences from 1978 to 1995 in basketball and from 1978 to 2002 in football. During this time he became a football official for the Big Eight. As time progressed, his career focused on the Big Eight (later Big 12) football games.

There were many memorable games, including all the major bowl games over the years. None were any more exciting than the Nebraska/

Oklahoma matchups during the Tom Osborn and Barry Switzer years, which included the game when they were ranked 1-2 in the nation.

He and his late wife, Dexter native Pamela Weber, had two sons who both excelled in sports at Kennett. Tim and Todd got to travel with their dad to a lot of big football games. Their favorite was the Nebraska/Oklahoma matchup. Terry also officiated the Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas five times. He was a field official for two of them and the replay official for three of them. His sons got to go to those games -- a thrill for young boys from the Bootheel.

"They loved to go to those games," he says.

Turlington reflects a little sadly about some of things he gave up to be an official at the major college level.

"I didn't get to see my sons' games as much as I should have," he relates, "but they got to do things a lot of kids only dream about."

Turlington began his career as a field judge. The field judge stands 15 yards off the line of scrimmage in the defensive secondary. One of their chief responsiblities is watching for pass interference. He spent 15 years in that role before becoming head official, or the "white cap." He stayed in that position until eight years ago when he moved into the booth at the top of various stadiums as the replay official. It is their job to watch replays and make a decison. He stayed in that position until his recent retirement. He finished 50 years as an official when he retired recently.

His career wasn't all highlights. He will always be remembered in some circles as one of the officials in the "fifth down game" in 1990. Missouri was playing Colorado in Columbia. As the game neared its end with Missouri leading number one Colorado, the Colorado quarterback spiked the ball and Colorado called time out. MU fans were celebrating because they thought it was fourth down and Missouri had stopped them. Officials, however, awarded Colorado another down, and they went on to score and win the game. The stadium went wild.

"It was unusual for a team to spike the ball and also call a time out," says Turlington. "Somehow the officials that were supposed to keep track of downs

didn't flip their cards."

"That play actually changed a rule in college football," adds Turlington. He says at that time only the referee and the head linesman kept track of downs. The NCAA changed that to having all the officials keep track of downs.

Turlington says none of the officials were aware of the mistake at that point. He said he left the stadium quickly to head to St. Louis to catch a flight to Chicago to the the NCAA Basketball Clinic. Upon arrival he found himself seated between Bobby Knight on the left and Norm Stewart, the MU basketball coach, on the right.

"They were brutal," Turlington says of the conversation about the infamous "fifth down" game. "ESPN had worn it out, and everyone in the country had seen it except me."

Turlington laughs about it now.

"In the 23 years since that game, I think I have had a quarter of a million people tell me they were at that game," says Turlngton ruefullly. "It was a lowlight in my career."

The stadium in Columbia only holds about 60,000 people.

Turlington grew up in Dexter and played basketball in high school. He played on Dexter teams from 1958-1962, coached by Percy Clippard. He is proud that the team he played on won the district championship his junior and senior years and went on to the state tournament. Both times they were eliminated by the eventual state champion. The first year they went up against St. Louis High School, which was "arguably the best team to come out of the state of Missouri." Other members of that Dexter team were Ron Hill, Joe Pollock, Butch Beard, Jim Hall, Dale VanBibber and Dwight Bland.

Turlington was offered a full scholarship to MU to play basketball under Coach Sparky Stalcup. His assistant was Norm Stewart. He graduated from MU with a major in political science and a minor in physical education. He later gained his MA degree in Administration.

He coached junior high one year in Columbia after college graduation before returning to the Bootheel. He was hired as head basketball coach at Kennett, settled down there and wound up coaching at Kennett for 15 years, before moving into administration. The whole time his wife, Pam, served as one of Kennett's biggest fans. She later became even a bigger fan as she followed their sons as they played football, basketball and baseball at Kennett.

"She only missed one game, and that was when our oldest son was born," remembers Turlington.

He was assistant high school principal and later principal at Kennett before he retired in 2003.

He says he and Pam came back to Dexter in 2003 to be closer to his mother and his mother-in-law.

Both are deceased now. Pam was diagnosed with lymphoma and died on Jan. 29, 2008.

His youngest son, Tim, is the head basketball coach at North Calloway County in central Missouri. His other son, Todd, is a Highway Patrolman. He has followed in his father's footsteps as an official for both high school basketball and football.

It has been a long career for Turlington, filled with many memories and experiences he will always remember. He pulls pictures from a file showing him on the field in a striped shirt in a variety of famous stadiums. He points to a picture of one of his crews and says one of the men pictured is Steve Stelljes. It just happens that Stelljes was one of the officials in the Super Bowl this year.

As Turlington looks over the pictures, he cherishes lots of memories from his 50-year

officiating career.