Ive been waiting years for this phone call.. An 1831 woodcut depicted Nat Turner's insurrection. He's worked as a manager at a tire manufacturing facility and an office installation company, but is currently managing an oil refinery. That gave him a chance to focus on school, and he soon realized he didn't like the direction his academics were heading. Shanna Batten Aguirre, a descendant of Nat Turner, holds a box containing what some believe is Turner's skull. The first was decent but didnt clear. At some point in his life,Nat Turner got kicked in the head by a mule. Vernon Turner tells all in his recently-published autobiography. These guys helped me mold myself into a professional athlete. He ordered the bar raised to 2.32 meters; 7-7. Its not hard to find Southampton residents who refuse to speak to strangers about the event. Rick Francis, a descendant of victims and survivors of the rebellion, is Southampton Countys clerk of the Circuit Court. He made a rare trip to Staten Island last summer, visiting his own exhibit at the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame. That gave him the confidence to believe in what theyre doing right now.. It takes courage and character for a person to unlock the door to a disturbing past, and that's exactly what Vernon Turner, a former National Football League player and the 1989 Advance Sportsman of the Year, does in his recently self-published autobiography. What got him there was why he was so motivated to succeed in the first place the need to take care of his family. So Turner doubled down. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. For those of us who remember him, it comes as no surprise that life's bumps and bruises have not deterred him. This skull is believed to have belonged to Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in 1831. And thats exactly what he did. Vernon I need you to stop explaining to some of these.. Turner fled and remained in hiding for more than two months until his discovery and capture by a local farmer. Sam, VT's stepfather, was a Jets season ticket holder -- and Jackie made Vernon promise that he'd accept an invitation if asked to attend a game, which he reluctantly did. He called his high school coach and said he was turning pro. "I found a 10-pound weight in the weight room, unlaced my shoe, and tied it around my waist under my pants on weigh-in day.". He received a football scholarship to Carson-Newman, which gave him a chance to get an education, but the sport was never something he saw himself doing beyond college. During those conversations, he says he often shares the following quote (widely attributed to Mark Twain): The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why., That was pivotal for me, Turner emphasizes. I had two options: leave school and take care of them, or stay and theyd have to go into foster care. The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? Five years later, a Richmond Times article claimed that Turners skeleton was in Toano, near Williamsburg, being used for anatomical study by a local doctor. "I threw the ball back to the quarterback in practice one day, and the next day they moved me to QB.". Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). And once a director is selected and the announcement is formally made, filming will commence. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. No less certain is the fate of Turners skull. "He told he knew what I did and I said how coach?" Turner admits he reached a point where he didnt know what to do and felt incredibly helpless. Update: October 13, 1:45 p.m. The family has temporarily given the skull to the Smithsonian Institution, which will conduct a DNA test to determine if it is, in fact, Turner's. Not so familiar is the long and grisly aftermath of the short-lived insurrection that the bodies of participants and bystanders were reduced to trophies, and that the lingering pain of the shocking episode would continue to arouse passion nearly two centuries later. "When I made the Bills I bought a Nissan Pathfinder and I asked coach if he could hold it along with my car during offseason workoutsI saved my money to pay off the truck, got the title, and when I got back home I picked up my car and he asked if I wanted him to follow with the truck," said Turner. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. While he was receiving some college offers to play wide receiver, Vernon was insistent on returning to running back -- where he was drastically undersized. All Turner has to do is sit back and watch as his inspirational true tale of how he somehow made it to the NFL and onto the Buffalo Bills is magically reinvented on the big screen for the world to see. I know I can be one of the best high jumpers in the world, Turner said. I didnt know why I was on this earth because of how I entered the world.. While in Tampa, Turner became the first player to return a kick or punt for a touchdown in franchise history, forever cementing himself in the NFL record book. After two months as a fugitive, Turner was captured, tried, and hanged. After one season with Buffalo, Turner joined the Los Angeles Rams for two years, before moving on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two more years and rounding out his career with a final stint in Detroit. The guests of honor, Shanna Batten Aguirre and Shelly Lucas Wood, both descendants of Turner, flew in from Washington, D.C., to accept the remains. | By Meteorologist Vernon Turner [6] Despite concluding his senior campaign only second in rushing yards to teammate Robert Thomas, he was selected to the first team All-South Atlantic Conference in 1989. All rights reserved. The familys stewardship acknowledges and rejects the historical objectification of human remains of people of color. The nagging ankle injury that still hurts from time to time. It is here that the facts surrounding Turner end and speculation and lore begin. MOUNT VERNON Herman Turner is still seeking answers, and justice, after his wife, Raynette Turner, was found dead in a police holding cell. "I owe him, he gave me everything he had," Turner says Olivieri told his wife. The OU high jumper hadnt cleared the bar at more than 7 feet in four years. 5h Rain continues to move into the area. Citing 1999s Hurricane Floyd as a pivotal event in sparking this interest, Vernon has always had an appreciation for informative reporting prior to a storm. Once Turner got back to OU, they realized his ankle was going to need serious rehabilitation. Eternal God, we are gathered here today to honor you, and to honor the legendary liberator, emancipator of the enslaved, and revolutionary of righteous, the Reverend Nathaniel Turner.. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site. Injured an ankle. * He received a full athletic scholarship to Carson-Newman College from 1986-1989 where I was named . tells the inspiring story of how the now 44-year-old Turner moved as a young child from the mean streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant to a quiet neighborhood in Sunnyside, where he discovered a love for football that took him from Curtis High School to Carson-Newman (Tenn.) College to an improbable NFL career with four different teams. For the past decade, what's believed to be Turner's skull has been in the possession of Richard Hatcher, former mayor of Gary, Indiana. Every time the high jumper has gone to a meet this season, he has heard another tale about his supposed whereabouts last season. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Then Turner won the Big 12 Indoor in late February with a leap of 7-3. In Southampton, as elsewhere, Nat Turners Rebellion still sparks strong emotions. They were the ones who gave me a job that helped me save my family. In fact, Olivieri spent so much time helping Turner that it prompted his wife to ask why. I wouldnt put anything past him, Langford said. I dont know necessarily how its going to be once I really get back into it, but it doesnt feel normal yet.. Singing in his youth in church choirs and informally for tips . [1] Among those killed were Hayes and Mary Turner. Twitter: @WeathermanVern. In 1991, he joined the Los Angeles Rams, playing as their primary kickoff and punt returner through the 1992 season. The final segment (The Fourth Quarter) enthusiastically records Turner's roller-coaster ride through the NFL. When does spring start? He was on the rebound. But after another meeting with head coach Jim VanHootegem, Turner says he learned he wasnt going to get the scholarship boost. Thats not to say the past should be forgotten. His numerous descendants have fanned out from a rural pocket of Tidewater. With a special interest in severe weather preparedness, Vernon knows a thing or two about the importance of being a calm voice within the storm. He heard through the grapevine VanHootgens days at OU might be limited VanHootgen eventually did step down but Turner ultimately opted to return to Norman because he wanted to work again with high jump coach Jerel Langley. Many stories have circulated about the fate of Turners remains after his hanging. Turner's defining moment comes in Tampa Bay, when he returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown -- the first regular-season punt return for a TD in Buccaneer history. Turner probes deep into his soul, however, to reveal other secrets. In Worlds, every opportunity Ive had, Ive fumbled. ", "People ask me how'd you do it?" After being released, he played the last game of the season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was Tampa's primary return specialist during the 1994 season. It was Olivieri who spearheaded Turner's decision to attend tiny Carson-Newman, an NAIA school which won a national championship during Turner's stay and also produced a handful of NFL players. One hundred ninety years is a lot of time for a case to grow cold. guyI'll show you.". It seems minor, but when you're launching your body over a bar that's more than a foot higher than your head, every detail is important. In 1993, Turner signed with the Detroit Lions, backing up return specialist Mel Gray. He has been credited as a progenitor of jump blues and of early rock and roll. With all he's accomplished and overcome, Turner travels as a motivational speaker these days. Much more accurate, according to Blakey, is genetic analysis. An article from April 1920 in The Journal of Negro History, an academic publication, claims that Turners skull graces the collection of a physician in the city of Norfolk., It wasnt just Turners skull that numerous people claimed ownership of in the decades after his execution. Several versions claim that he was flayed, quartered, and decapitated before his torso was finally buried in the local paupers cemetery. He wants to win championships. (Read about Turner's complex legacy.). "Coach Olivieri drove this green Chevy Nova, it was a little piece of crap," remembered Turner. I may have been in a dark place for awhile. "I was so grateful, to do it against the Bills who cut me the year beforeit was the exclamation point on an unbelievable journey.". #NCwx @SpecNews1RDU @SpecNews1ILM GIF 1 Meteorologist Vernon Turner At the time, the school still was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), earning five Division I national championships during the 1980s. Certainly, this fragile fragment holds enormous emotional value for me, for my family. He said that his team is taking great care with the identification of the skull and that the sophisticated techniques theyre employing take time. [2], Turner attended Curtis High School on Staten Island where he played football as a quarterback and also lettered in track and field. Though Vernon's youth playing career was taking off, he was still busy managing his brothers and sisters -- often loading them up onto the city bus so he could bring them along with him to practice. 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