Hall of Famer Turner Dies

Hall of Famer Clyde “Bulldog” Turner, a two-way star on four Chicago Bear championship teams who once defied coach George Halas, has died. He was 79.

Turner’s daughter, Pat, said her father suffered from emphysema and was found to have lung cancer in March. He died Friday on his ranch in Gatesville, Texas.

Turner, who at 6 feet 2 and 240 pounds was exceptionally big and fast for his era, played center and linebacker. He was Chicago’s first-round draft pick in 1940, the year the Bears defeated the Washington Redskins, 73-0, for their first of four championships of that decade.

In that game, Turner disobeyed a direct order from Halas--who also owned the Bears and was a founding father of the NFL. Turner once told an interviewer that so many footballs were being lost when extra-point kicks went into the stands that practice balls were being used.

Still, Halas ordered him to make a bad snap. Turner refused.

“I told Halas I wasn’t going to make a bad snap, not in a championship game,” Turner said. “I never made a bad snap in my life.”

Undeterred, Halas convinced the holder to drop the ball. Turner said he was blamed for the botch the next day in newspaper accounts of the game.

Turner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966.

He played for the Bears for 13 years. He was a player-coach in 1952, a full-time assistant under Halas through 1956 and head coach of the New York Titans of the AFL in 1962.

*

The Green Bay Packers put running back Dorsey Levens, wide receiver Derrick Mayes, quarterback Doug Pederson and guard Mike Wahle on inactive status for today’s game against the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field.