Clyde Turner’s legacy continues

Another View

We’re close to the end of our first summer without Clyde Turner, who died August 9 of last year at age 71. In tribute to the community legend, I’ve been wearing camp T-shirts. 

Turner operated his camps each summer for nearly 35 years as the Twin Cities’ longest-running summer basketball camp—anywhere—both locally and nationally. It has often been a conversation starter to learn about him.

Even the new Gopher volleyball coach Keenan Cook asked about Clyde, especially about his legendary camp slogan: “Work hard. Study hard. Excel in life. Beat the odds.”

At least three generations of hoopsters, hoop wannabees, and just ordinary kids signed up by their parents to learn life skills along with sports came through Turner’s camps. The summer camps were either five-day sessions or weeklong overnight camps outside Annandale at Lake Sylvia. For several decades, it was a badge of honor such that if you could compete at Clyde’s, you certainly could compete anywhere. He held his last camp in 2019.

Unlike other camps, Clyde kept his very affordable, oftentimes at no cost to campers and their families. Secondly, he staffed the camp with college players and recent high school graduates, former campers, and some current or former coaches.

The camps were about more than hoops, as Clyde also brought in people from all walks of life to speak to the campers. Clyde’s camps were also launching pads for future coaches such as Tamara Moore and Khalid El-Amin. 

Moore was among the first girls to participate in the camps, which were originally all-boys camps. David Collier, now a boys varsity head coach, worked for Clyde for three years and said he learned a lot as well as enjoyed the experience.

Current Mankato WBB Assistant Coach Janay Morton worked Clyde’s camps during her college years. Her last camp was Turner’s last one in 2019. “Clyde Turner was such an amazing inspiration to both the community of Minnesota and myself,” she pointed out. “I attended camp as a kid from fourth grade until I graduated from high school.

“I returned as a coach for the camps every summer I was home from playing college basketball. Clyde’s camps played a huge role in my development as a basketball player. I gained a toughness to both my mental and physical game at his camps. Clyde always took care of me and the people he encountered.”

As a Northside youth, “I used to love going over there,” recalled Al Nolen. “You were able to develop those social skills with other kids, develop those friendships, and also get that mentorship from a Black male who you knew was successful.”

Nolen went on to graduate from Minneapolis Henry, then played for and later graduated from Minnesota, played pro ball (the NBA G-League and overseas), and now runs his own Al Nolen Foundation.

He remembered once getting a visit from Clyde: “He came and visited me at my first job, and sat down with me in my office and talked to me,” recalled Nolen. “He’s always been a mentor of mine.”

This summer, Nolen ran camps at a local Northside park, seeming to borrow a page from Clyde’s playbook on running a successful camp—a small, hot gym filled with young boys and girls, some hoopsters and others who were there because their parents signed them up. They learned basketball skills, social-emotional learning, and even yoga, Nolen said. 

His plans include an afterschool program that offers both basketball, tutoring, and also “making sure you’re fed” before you go home. 

“I really appreciate the likes of Clyde Turner and all he was able to do for the community and the leadership he brought,” said Nolen.