Career Highlights: Four-time College Conference of Illinois (CCI) First Team selection; selected as defensive back and running back in 1958; running back in 1959 and 1960; North Central and CCI Most Valuable Player in 1960 (senior); finished as school record-holder for most point scored in a career (150); NAIA All-District in 1960; Little All-American; played for the Minnesota Vikings.
John Turpin had a nose for the end zone. The star halfback/defensive back sat atop the North Central College career scoring list with 150 points for 34 years until Kevin Platt ’94 tied his record in 1994. Turpin also still rests at No. 4 on the all-time list for most rushes in a career with 414.
In his four years of playing football for the College, Turpin became one of only three players to be named College Conference of Illinois (CCI) All-Conference First Team four times. The others are fellow inductee Tom Dean ’61 and Steve Holden ’06. He was All-CCI as a defensive back and running back in 1958, and then solely as a running back in 1959 and 1960.
Turpin and Dean were quite the combo for North Central. Together, they helped lead the College to one of its most successful seasons ever, posting a 7-2 record in 1960. Turpin earned North Central and CCI Most Valuable Player honors for his performance and was named to the NAIA All-District Team as well as Little All-American. He was also later honored in 1998 as a member of North Central’s All-Century Football Team (1898-1998).
Following a standout collegiate career, Turpin was contacted by the Minnesota Vikings, who were in their first year of competition as an expansion club in the NFL. Turpin spent part of his first season on the practice squad before being activated as a defensive back, punt returner and kick returner. His first season, however, was cut short by injury.
“Playing for the Vikings was really a wake-up call,” Turpin said. “I was competing for a job with guys from the Big 10 and Pac 10. But I just took it one step at a time, and before I knew it, I was covering receivers that Johnny Unitas was throwing to and trying to tackle guys like Jim Brown.”
Turpin returned to the Vikings the following season before the injury bug cut short his season again. Done with professional athletics, he headed west and landed a job in the television business as an assistant research director, thanks to a fellow he met when the Vikings were in San Francisco playing the 49’ers. He remained in the tv/radio business before eventually returning to school and receiving a coterminal bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics in 1972 from Stanford University.
The former football star then went into the entertainment business as an international tour manager, later working with Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation tour from 1990-92. For the next seven years, Turpin traveled back and forth between California and West Africa conducting research. He was primarily in Nigeria, but also spent time in Benin, Togo and what is now known as the People’s Republic of Benin.
Turpin is still associated with the entertainment business and also spends time translating early 19th and late 20th century African texts.
