Everyone grows up with big dreams of being famous as I can attest to. For most people they want to be a famous actor, musician or professional athlete. Like everyone, Terry Turner had those dreams, and his dream was to be a professional football player.
Terry was a star running back in high school for the Niles North Vikings, who envisioned being the next Jamaal Charles in the National Football League. He would finish with 1759 career rushing yards for the Vikings, and run a 4.37 for the forty yard dash. Even though he was a top running back in high school he never was recruited or received offers from schools. He had to search for his own schools to play at. No major college even approached him, which in itself is a tragedy. Everyone had something positive to say about Terry, and not just his athletic ability.
“He’s the fastest football player I’ve ever been on the field with, said Danny Khouri a former teammate. “He is a good dude, very nice guy who gets along with everyone.”
“Being a co-captain with him it was great, said Alex Aubian, the man who blocked for him. “Our perspective on the game of football and our emotions were always high. As far as seeing him run the football, you should probably ask him how he watched me throw blocks for him he looked like he was a blur past me.”
His quarterback at the time had some kind words to say about his running back. “Terry Turner is probably the best running back I have ever seen in person, said Mike Granato QB.” “Not only was he a great leader, I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as him or cut as fast as he could cut. If he had the right coaching, people around him I think Terry could be playing and making money playing in the NFL, no doubt.”
His luck didn’t change until a Niles North security guard at the time told him about a junior college called Ellsworth Community College located in Iowa. “He was shocked I wasn’t getting any offers from other schools so he told me to contact Ellsworth and it went straight from there, said Turner.” Things were going well while he was playing there in hopes of being discovered by scouts to transfer to a bigger school, but he never was recruited.
Not everyone is given the luck of sheer talent but even sometimes talent doesn’t always add up to being a professional athlete, other factors may unfortunately occur. “You’re given talent like that, not many people are, and you can go along with that, said Granato.”
He tore his ACL ending his season with a long road to recovery, as ACL tears usually take 6-9 months to a year to get back to peak form. ”I knew I screwed it up and didn’t have any motivation to play anymore, I could of easily went back to play but I lost the motivation to try and go back to school. Turner said.” “I was going through a phase for a year and for a second I thought it wasn’t worth it to come back. I didn’t take my studies seriously and once I returned home I didn’t want to go back to Iowa after my surgery which I regret. I kept saying I would but, I didn’t have the fire under my ass to do it. To be honest I felt like I was on my own with the surgery no one was there for me during rehab.”
A year went by after the ACL surgery and a friend of his contacted him about picking up dancing since he had danced since he was a kid. . His friend said he should try out for a dance team and the rest was history.
“I never took dance seriously but it seemed like things were coming my way for me to start dancing, Turner said.” “Like the opportunities kept coming as if it was a sign saying look even if you don’t play football you still can do this to entertain folks and that’s when I started taking dance seriously which took about a year to realize.”
When asked if he misses football and if dance fills the void, he feels it does fill the void. “Yes, it does have the same joy but not as much as you can entertain people and put on a show but I love football more because of the intensity and running and juking and the thought of someone bigger than you trying to chase you and bring you down is the best, said Turner.”
The main reason he played football was because of his step father. “I’ve always connected with my step dad since he’s just always been a sports guy so he introduced me to football, said Turner.”
“One game he had three carries, three touchdowns, and over a 100 yards, recalls Granato.”It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. He still plays pickup football with me.”
Terry’s accomplishments on the field will not be forgotten since he wasn’t just a great football player in talking to everyone. They all loved him and had not a bad word to say about him. He has been in dance companies and started choreographing since 2011. Besides from being in many dance troupes, he has a job to pay the bills, and has a girlfriend with a baby on the way.
“Terry is very passionate about everything he does and when he puts his mind to doing something, he makes sure he gives it his 100%, said Jaime De Leon Cajucom, his girlfriend.” “Having a partner like that in life motivates me to be a better person and inspires me to do my best in everything that I do.”