Tim Peeler: Multi-sport athlete 'Touchdown' Turner starred the last time the Pack played VMI

Howard “Touchdown” Turner couldn’t always see the end zone because of eyesight that caused him to fail his U.S. Army draft board request on three different occasions during World War II.

Then again, the diminutive 5-foot-9, 170-pound NC State tailback from Rocky Mount didn’t always need to – he was able to find it anyway.

That was certainly the case on Nov. 2, 1946, in Roanoke, Virginia, the last time NC State played against Virginia Military Institute, a 49-7 Wolfpack rout against its Southern Conference brethren at the city’s Victory Stadium.

(The Keydets, once a regular opponent on the State College football schedule, will visit Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday at 2 p.m. for the first meeting of the teams in 77 years.)

Turner, who also played on NC State’s Red Terror basketball team for three seasons, continuously worked to improve on his natural abilities, making himself into a fast and elusive runner on offense, a keen defender and a scoring threat in both football and basketball. The State alumni magazine once estimated that he spent 5,070 hours improving his throwing and kicking skills.

“Turner sharpens his pitching arm in hunting season by stalking squirrels while armed only with rocks,” the Technician reported prior to the 1946 season about the lifelong outdoorsman. “He knocked off six squirrels with well-aimed stones during the 1945 open season, a fair bag for an amateur hunter with or without a gun.”

Not bad for someone whose bad eyes kept him from serving in the Army, making him the perfect representative of the 500 full-time students, most all of which were 4-F military rejects.

The VMI game 18 months after the end of second global conflict was one of the more remarkable in Turner’s two-sport career. He ran 14 yards for a touchdown, passed 11 yards for a score and returned a punt 60-yards for a TD. Earlier in the school year, Turner was the leading scorer for Leroy Jay’s Red Terror basketball team.

Football teammate George Allen, the fullback in head coach Beattie Feathers’ wing-T offense, galloped for three touchdowns against the Keydets in front of 6,000 spectators.

Turner, though, got the lion’s share of Feathers’ praise for guiding the Wolfpack back from its first loss of the season, a 14-6 upset by Virginia Tech the week before. He was the centerpiece of an 8-3 NC State team that was the first in school history to ever earn a national ranking in The Associated Press Top 20 poll and the first to qualify for the first postseason bowl game in school history.

At a time when NC State’s student population dwindled to fewer than 500 academic students and 4,000 military trainees, Turner was a big man on campus from his earliest days.

Coach Williams “Doc” Newton first recruited him from Rocky Mount and called him “the finest tailback I have ever coached.” Under Feathers, the former Tennessee All-American and the first running back in NFL history to rush for more than 1,000 yards, Turner flourished.

The gritty back didn’t like contact – nor the sight of blood – but he loved finding the end zone. He was named All-Southern Conference in each of this final three seasons with the Wolfpack.

“Turner runs with the motion of a side-show dancer,” The AP once wrote.

He was a big-play guy from his first to his final day with the Wolfpack. As a two-way junior safety against Duke, he picked off a pass in the end zone and ran it back 105 yards for what is still the longest interception return for a touchdown in school history. 

As a senior, Turner scored both of State’s touchdowns in a 14-7 win at Clemson with a 98-yard kickoff return and a 14-yard touchdown run.

After its win over VMI, State lost to Vanderbilt but whipped Virginia 27-7 on Homecoming day, beat Florida 37-6 in Tampa and ended the regular season with a 28-7 win over Maryland in which Turner scored three touchdowns in his final game at Riddick Stadium.

After the game, officials from the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, invited Feathers and his team to face Oklahoma, which was coached by North Carolina alumnus Jim Tatum. The Wolfpack fell to the Sooners 34-13 in the second-annual contest. Turner scored one of the Pack’s two touchdowns and set up the second.

The bowl game kept Turner from trying out for Everett Case’s initial basketball team at State despite the fact that he was the team’s leading scorer and captain in 1945-46. Case’s Red Terrors, led by Dick Dickey and a roster with 15 new players, went on to win the first of six consecutive Southern Conference championships.

Turner ended his athletic career after the bowl game, but he left a legacy for the program that is firmly entrenched, even if it pales with today’s offensive numbers.

Despite his size, Turner parlayed his collegiate success into a contract with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League, where he played for seven seasons. Turner and NC State teammate John Waggoner led the Rough Riders to the 1951 Grey Cup Championship.

Turner stayed in Canada after his playing career ended, because that’s where his wife Phyllis was from. They were married 54 years and had five daughters. He embarked on an advertising sales position with Colonial Coach Lines and sold beer for O’Keefe Breweries. 

Turner died at the age of 84 on Nov. 2, 2004 – 58 years to the day after leading the Wolfpack to three touchdowns against VMI – while watching a televised CFL playoff game in his living room.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].