Herschell Turner obit

Former Shortridge star, college All-American, community leader Herschell Turner dies at 86

 

He was not on the list.

When Crispus Attucks rose to prominence as the high basketball program of the 1950s, winning three state championships and starring some of the most legendary names in the history of the state, including Oscar Robertson, some of the most challenging games came from rival city schools.

Shortridge was at the top of the list. And the main reason was because of a young man named Herschell Turner, who never could quite defeat Robertson and those Attucks’ teams. But before becoming accomplished artist and community leader, the 6-2 Turner and those Shortridge teams gave city basketball fans who packed Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler Fieldhouse, as it was known then) many thrills – and those Attucks’ championship teams some serious scares.

“Herschell was our Oscar,” former Marion County sheriff Frank Anderson told IndyStar’s Will Higgins in 2003.

Turner, 86, died Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he lived most of his adult life. After setting a single-season scoring record at Shortridge as a senior in 1955-56, the same year Robertson and Attucks’ team became the state’s first undefeated state champion, Turner went on to become the first player at the University of Nebraska to score more than 1,000 career points. He led the Cornhuskers in scoring and rebounding for three seasons and was named a Helms All-American.

Turner was selected with the No. 45 overall pick by the Syracuse Nationals in the 1960 NBA draft but never played in the NBA. He did play 41 games in the American Basketball Association in 1967-68 with the Pittsburgh Pipers and Anaheim Amigos. Turner was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

“I remember Herschell as a very likeable individual with a good sense of humor,” said Jim Loer, a 1955 Shortridge graduate who played basketball alongside Turner. “He brought music into the locker room, which really livened things up before a practice. He was a very good basketball player, which added strength to our team. Unfortunately, not enough strength since we never beat Attucks.”

Those Attucks-Shortridge games were highly anticipated at the time, played in front of thousands of fans at Butler Fieldhouse. As a sophomore, Robertson’s one-handed jump shot in double overtime – then played as a sudden death situation – gave Attucks a 60-58 win over Shortridge on Dec. 30, 1954, in the championship of the City tournament. Shortridge lost to Attucks three times that season, including a 14-point loss in the sectional championship.

In 1955-56, Turner set the Shortridge single season scoring record with 512 points. After losing twice to Attucks during the regular season, the teams again met in the sectional championship – this time in front of 15,000 fans at Butler Fieldhouse. The Blue Devils battled one of the state’s legendary teams deep into the fourth quarter, losing 53-48. Turner scored a game-high 16 points, finishing his season with a 21.3-point scoring average.

Albert Maxey, a junior standout for Attucks on that team, would later go on to team up with Turner at Nebraska. Turner, the youngest of six in his family, was recruited to Nebraska by Jerry Bush, who played for the Fort Wayne Pistons in the 1940s and coached at Toledo until 1954. (Bush is the grandfather of current Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg.) Turner rewrote the record books at Nebraska, scoring 1,056 points and grabbing 626 rebounds, averaging 17.1 points and 9.8 rebounds as a junior and 15.9 points and 8.0 rebounds as a senior. In 1957-58, Turner’s sophomore year, Nebraska upset No. 4 Kansas and No. 1 Kansas State at home in back to games near the end of the season.

Turner went on to play for the Baltimore Bullets, then of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, in 1960-61. He then played for the Chicago Majors of the American Basketball League, which was owned by Harlem Globetrotters’ coach and owner Abe Saperstein before the league folded in 1963. Turner caught on with the Globetrotters on finish out his contact, then played with the Grand Rapids Tackers and Muskegon Panthers of the North American Basketball League before playing with Pittsburgh and Anaheim in the ABA.

Turner grew up with an interest in art. “God gave me a jump shot and a paint brush,” Turner told the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal-Star in 2013. His father was a gardner at the Westerley estate in the Golden Hill neighborhood on the northwest side, where George Clowes’ family lived. The Clowes’ family had an extensive art collection.

“Mr. Clowes knew I was into art, and he’d give me his own personal tour,” Turner told Higgins in 2003. “I wasn’t floored by it, but I appreciated it. And it was encouraging to me that here’s this man who really really likes art and is spending all that money on it.”

Turner, who settled in Grand Rapids with his wife and three daughters, worked as art director of the Michigan Department of Correction, where he taught inmates how to draw. He also sold his own prints (can be found at Herschellturnerartwork.com), including a series of paintings on Black cowboys. He and his old friend Maxey had an art display featured in Lincoln, Neb., where Maxey lived his adult life, about a decade ago.

“My first love was and is art,” Turner told the Journal-Star in 2013. “I’ve been able to take advantage of that because of the basketball.”

Turner worked for General Motors before becoming the first director of the Baxter Community Center in Grand Rapids and earning many civic and community awards. In 2016, Grand Rapids mayor Rosalyn Bliss honored him by declaring “Herschell Turner Day” on Feb. 24, during Black history month.

Frank Mead, a 1955 Shortridge graduate and basketball teammate of Turner’s, spoke to Turner on the phone in May. They were hoping Turner could return to Indianapolis for a get-together in the next few months.

“Herschell was a very nice guy,” Mead said. “I hadn’t talked to him in a while but right away he said, ‘Frank, what are you up to?’ And we talked for about 30 minutes.”

A celebration of life is scheduled for Aug. 29 at 11 a.m. at Brown-Hutcherson Ministries in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Career information

High school            Shortridge (Indianapolis, Indiana)

College            Nebraska (1957–1960)

NBA draft            1960: 6th round, 45th overall pick

Selected by the Syracuse Nationals

Playing career            1960–1968

Position            Point guard

Number            45, 34, 50

Career history

1961–1963            Chicago Majors

1967            Pittsburgh Pipers

1967–1968            Anaheim Amigos

Career highlights and awards

All-ABL Second Team (1962)

First-team All-Big Eight (1960)