Jim Turner, who kicked the Jets into Super Bowl history, dies at age 82

Jim Turner, who fulfilled Joe Namath’s prophecy that the New York Jets would win Super Bowl III in 1969 by scoring three field goals and an extra point to become the game’s leading scorer, died Saturday at his home in Arvada, Colo ., a suburb of Deventer. He turned 82.

The Jets and Denver Broncos, the two teams Turner played for, announced his death.

Turner played professional football for 16 years, with the Jets from 1964 to 1970 and the Broncos from 1971 to 1979. In the 1968–69 season, he scored 34 field goals and scored 145 points, setting records that stood until 1983, when the New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh broke the first and Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley broke the second.

His success was made possible in part by his stamina: he missed none of his career’s 228 regular season games and eight playoff games.

The most memorable game of Turner’s career was the Jets’ game against the Baltimore Colts on the afternoon of January 12, 1969.

The Colts belonged to the older and better established National Football League, while the Jets were part of their fledgling competitor, the American Football League. The Super Bowl, first held in 1967, pitted the best team from one league against another.

The Colts, led by quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, had defeated the powerhouse Green Bay Packers, winners of the previous two Super Bowls, to qualify for the 1969 championship.

While Unitas and Shula embodied the stoic masculinity many fans associated with football, Namath, the Jets’ quarterback nicknamed Broadway Joe, was a figure of boisterous swagger, and none of his public remarks had ever seemed less creditable than his assurance that the Jets would become the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl by defeating the Colts.

Namath played well—completed 17 of 28 passes for 206 yards, earning the Most Valuable Player award—but it was Turner, an outspoken Off Off Broadway figure, who was the decisive player. He provided the Jets with their margin of victory, only scoring more points than the Colts.

Turner made its biggest impact in the third quarter. The Jets, who won 7-0, controlled the ball for nearly three minutes. Turner kicked two field goals about 30 yards each to make the score 13–0.

In the fourth quarter, the Colts’ defense stopped the Jets around the 2-yard line. At that point, the goal posts were on the goal line, rather than at the back of the end zone, making the kick a 9-yard shot.

“It’s one of the toughest kicks I’ve ever tried,” Turner told The Herald Journal News of Utah in 2013.

He made it to set a record (tie in 1971 by Mike Clark of the Dallas Cowboys) for the shortest field goal in Super Bowl history.

He missed two more field goals during the game, but it didn’t matter. The Colts, hampered by an injury to Unitas and a stout Jets defense, scored just once, on a 1-yard rush by running back Jerry Hill.

Namath’s prediction came true and the Jets won 16-7.

James Bayard Turner was born on March 28, 1941 in Crockett, a small town outside of San Francisco. His parents were Bethel and Bayard Turner. He played football at Utah State and began his career with the Jets in 1964.

That same year, he met Mary Kay Roettger at a swimming pool in Crockett. He proposed to her 10 days later, just before the Jets’ training camp was held. They married in 1965.

She survives him, along with their daughters, Lisa, Chris and Alison; his brothers, Paul, Eddie and Jack; his sister Pat; and eight grandchildren.

Turner was traded to the Broncos in 1971 during a contract dispute with the Jets. He eventually settled in the Denver area and hosted a sports radio talk show there in later years.

His most prominent appearance in the national media came in 1969 when he became the cover of Sports Illustrated as representing the new influence of dedicated place-kickers in football. He praised his team’s overall strategy, and Namath in particular, for the prominent role he played with the Jets.

“A lot of people criticize us for going after the field goal when we get stuck in the 35,” he said. “But we can afford that because we have the luxury of a good defense. Joe knows it will turn the ball back to him pretty quickly and give us another chance for the seven. Of course, that makes me look a lot better because of all those attempts.”