When Clarence Turner took over the fabled Camden boys' basketball program at the start of the 1970-71 season, little was known of the South Carolina native.
The new coach had big shoes to fill replacing Hall of Fame coach Tony Alfano, who had guided the program to prominence during his 25-year reign.
But it didn't take the new coach long to build his own reputation. Over his 28-year coaching stint, Turner raised the program to national recognition.
The road to a national reputation, however, was not without its pitfalls. Turner didn't always endear himself to his fellow coaches for several reasons, and three of his teams were suspended from the state tournament.
Despite the controversy, the program under Turner kept winning and winning. During his tenure, Camden went 677-107, winning more games than any other coach in South Jersey history. For that, the Courier-Post has named him the Coach of the Century.
``Yes we had a lot of great players come through the program while I was there,'' Turner said recently. ``But you don't always win with just great players.
``We worked hard to become the success we were. We, as a coaching staff, worked hard and long on fundamentals, epsecially on defense. I never allowed the kids to become too tricky or too fancy. I always felt two points counted two points no matter what you did. So do it the right way.''
Turner also praised the work of his assistants Fred Reuben and the late Judd Gaines. He also thanked Joe Kissinger who did all the advance scounting for the program.
His winning percentage of .864 is the best in the history of South Jersey. During his career, the Panthers won seven state championships (six in Group 4 and one in Group 3), 19 sectional titles and 24 conference championships. He had two unbeaten seasons, going 31-0 in 1984 and 30-0 in 1986.
In 25 of his 28 seasons he had 20-
plus wins. He coached 18 All-South Jersey players and had 19 players that scored more than 1,000 career points, including Kevin Walls, South Jersey's second all-time leading scorer with 2,775 points.
Turner had two players star in the NBA, Milt Wagner and Billy Thompson. The two played on NBA championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers after winning the NCAA title as teammates for Lousiville in 1986.
Turner wouldn't say which was his best team, but he has fond memories of the 1974 team, his first state championship team with the likes of Daryl Lee, Derrick Ramsay, Art Still, Charles Brent and Robert Ingram.
"The 1973 team was also very good with Lee and those guys along with Wayne Smalls," Turner said.
He also rattled off the 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1986 teams as also being top-flight.
il,13l,6p5 ``I don't want to offend anyone, so I'm not saying which one I think was the best,'' Turner said. ``They were all pretty good.''
Turner also has some memories of very special games.
``The Linden game in the state finals in 1978, when we had Dennis Still and Bill Culbertson, comes to mind fast,'' he said. ``We were way behind and came back to win.
``Then the state semifinal game against Middletown South, which was unbeaten at the time. We came back and tied the score when Milt Wagner hit a shot at the buzzer to put the game into overtime. And then Billy Culbertson just carried us through the overtime. In fact, he carried us that whole year.''
Turner also said another great game was in 1982 when Billy Thompson put on a sensational 33-point performance against Montclair in the state final.
``In 1986, we had another great game against Montclair in the state finals,'' Turner said. ``We had Louis Banks, Donnie Walker, Vic Carstarphen and Denny Brown that year, and we beat them in two overtimes.''
And there were some disappointments.
``Probably the biggest was in 1981 when we lost to Neptune in the semifinals,'' Turner said. ``We were 29-0 going into that game.''
His last season was in 1998 and that ended at Brick Memorial against Long Branch. The game ended with a little more than a minute to play when a riot broke out.
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association suspended Turner for a year after the incident. And earlier this year the Camden City board of education elected to keep Glen Jackson as the coach.