GASTON COLLEGE RECORD BOOK: Basketball's first 1,000-point scorer - Jim Turpin
(Part 2 of a 10-part series)
When Jim Turpin came to Gaston College to play basketball in the fall semester of 1966, he had just helped lay some groundwork for Gastonia's Hunter Huss High School's basketball program.
He put those skills to good use when he joined head coach Pete Brooks and several other former local products on Gaston College's first integrated athletic team in the 1966-67 season.
On a roster that included Cramerton's David Trivette, Gastonia Ashley's Clarence Denton and Cookie Stewart, Hunter Huss' Tony Taylor and African-American pioneers Leonard Hamilton and Larry Thompson of Highland High School, Turpin was the leading scorer with 356 points for a 19.8 points per game average as Gaston College had a 16-2 record for its best winning percentage in school history.
During the season, Turpin also had two 30-point games, including a then-school-record 37 points in a 108-96 victory at Southeastern Community College.
After a solid start in his first year as head coach, Pete Brooks' schedule was much more strenous and challenging for the 1967-68 season as the "Rebels" were determined to receive an invitation to the Region X National Junior College Athletic Association tournament.
And with Turpin and Hamilton back for a second season together, their high-scoring bond not only set records, it helped Gaston College win 19 of its 34 games and achieve the goal of making the school's first-ever national tournament.
Turpin averaged 21.1 points per game and Hamilton 20.4 in a season highlighted by the first and only 50-point games in school history; Hamilton had a school-record 54 points with Turpin close behind with 53 in a 150-87 win over Montreat Anderson at Gastonia's Groves Gym on Jan. 30, 1968.
The more challenging schedule led to losses against then Gardner-Webb Junior College (with 7-foot-2 eventual Basketball Hall of Fame center Artis Gilmore), Wake Forest's freshman team (with eventual NBA players Charlie Davis and Gil McGregor) and North Carolina's freshman team comprised of players like future East Gaston and Highland Tech principal Lee Dedmon who helped the Tar Heels win the 1969 ACC title and 1971 NIT championship.
Gaston College's season wouldn't end before Turpin reached 1,074 career points to become Gaston College's first 1,000-point scorer and before the Rebels advanced to the Region X tournament at the Lenoir Recreation Center; A 86-76 loss to Lees-McRae ended the season.
Turpin's career was far from over as he signed to play at nearby UNC Charlotte to complete his collegiate basketball career before a long career as a coach and recreation softball administrator.
At UNCC, Turpin's scoring exploits continued as he averaged 11.7 and 11.3 points per game, respectively, in the 1968-69 and 1969-70 seasons, the latter in which he and another Gaston College product (Larry Reid) helped the 49ers win their first-ever conference championship.
With Reid taking MVP honors in the old Dixie Conference tournament (now named Conference USA South), UNCC advanced to its first national tournament in 1970; The 49ers lost to Guilford in the NAIA District 26 semifinals and to Elon in the consolation game.
Turpin would then embark on a 30-year career in the Gaston County schools, highlighted by basketball head coaching jobs at Gastonia's Southwest Junior High and East Gaston High School in addition to a long stint as an assistant coach at Hunter Huss.
At Southwest, Turpin's last Roadrunners' team in 1982 went 13-1 and won the first Gaston County Conference championship before he guided East Gaston to 77 victories in six seasons as the Warriors' head coach from 1982 to 1988.
In addition to coaching and teaching, Turpin served as a local USSSA softball tournament director.
Turpin died on July 24, 1999 at 51 years of age.