A DIFFERENT KICK : Former NFL Placekicker Jim Turner Now Knocks Around a Racquetball

When the end came, Jim Turner couldn’t kick.

Not that he was unable, but 16 years is a millennium in professional football.

Turner packed his cleated high tops and departed, prepared for an afterlife of-- racquetball?

Indeed, throughout a pro football career that ended in 1979, he played this low-profile sport to maintain flexibility and keep his legs in shape for his primary occupation: booting field goals and extra points in the old-fashioned, straight-ahead style.

And his regimen apparently worked. He is still in the record books of the New York Jets and Denver Broncos, for whom he played seven and nine seasons, respectively.

He once ran a string of 221 extra points and ranks third in career scoring (1,439 points) in the National Football League, behind George Blanda (2,002) and Jan Stenerud (1,699).

“Without a doubt, putting racquetball into my training routine added at least a couple of years to my career,” he said.

Turner is proud of having kicked 304 field goals, a figure surpassed only by Stenerud (373) and Blanda (335).

“I’ll tell you, that’s a lot of three-pointers,” Turner said.

Turner is a California native who made his high school mark in Crockett, a community near Berkeley. He went on to play quarterback at Utah State. After his pro career, he remained in the Denver area, 10 miles northwest of the city in Arvada. He does a nightly radio sports show with Dave Logan, a former wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns.

And he finds time to play racquetball three or four times a week.

“There’s always somebody who wants to take me on,” said Turner, 47, who carries the same 205 pounds he did in his football days. “These guys are motivated. If they beat me, they can go brag to their friends. I lose a lot, but that’s OK. At my age, I appreciate the challenge.”

He wins a lot, too, at least lately. He took the Colorado masters title this year, and the last two years has been a finalist in Region 12, which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

Other former pro football players have been playing racquetball for some time and have earned stature in the game, among them Randy Vataha, Jim Bakken and Joe Theismann.

“Joe Gibbs (the Redskins’ coach) was a national champion in the 35-year age group,” Turner said, adding a couple of former Dodgers to the list, Al Oliver--”Just great. He could play on any level.”--and Steve Garvey.

The black, square-toed football high-tops, by the way, linked forever to Turner’s image, have been consigned ingloriously to a remote spot in the family garage and their owner hasn’t seen them for years. “I think the mice have eaten them by now,” he said.

Turner, whose wife, Mary Kay, and three daughters also play tournament racquetball, left one sport that requires kicking a stationary object for another that necessitates striking an object that usually moves at more than 100 m.p.h. There would appear to be no similarities, no transfer of skills.

Wrong, says Turner.

“In both sports it’s just you and the ball, and there’s very little room for error. The difference between a miss and a make on a 40-yard field goal would be only an eighth of an inch at the point of impact. You’ve got the same margin in racquetball, the difference between a successful kill shot and a ball that skips into the front wall. And the concentration required is the same, too. It’s intense, 100%.”

Turner doesn’t understate the grip racquetball has maintained on him for 20 years. “I love it. It’s a physically demanding game.

“But people shouldn’t be intimidated by the sport and feel they have to be super athletes to play it,” he added. “You don’t have to be a Marty Hogan or a Steve Strandemo to have a great time and get a good workout. That’s the beauty of the game. You can be Joe Smith and still enjoy yourself.

“You sweat for an hour, have some fun, then go have a beer.”

Turner is coordinating a racquetball exhibition tournament that would be played yearly in conjunction with the national amateur tournament. It would involve pro football players, past and present, and possibly, professional athletes in other sports. “Garvey is interested, if he can work out his schedule,” Turner said.

He promises representation in 1989 by every football team, the idea being to bring some familiar names into racquetball’s premier event and get the attention of the non-playing public and the media.

“I went from age 8 to 40 in organized sports but you can’t play football forever,” he said. “It was really inspiring in Houston (site of the nationals in late May) to see guys 70 and older playing, and playing well. I’ve got my sport now, and I’ll be playing it for the rest of my life.”