TOP ATHLETE OF THE PAST 30 YEARS: CHRIS TURNER (BARTLESVILLE)
By Mike Tupa
Dec. 17, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
During his nearly 30 years of covering area high school sports for either the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise or the Bartlesville Area Sports Report, Mike Tupa has enjoyed the opportunity to observe some incredible athletes.
This is an ongoing series highlighting, each few days, one of those athletes from the 1996-97 school year through the present. The list is not in chronological order. The athletes are presented in random sequence.
Today's Spotlight
CHRIS TURNER (Bartlesville)
Multiple sports (Class of 1999)
Chris Turner is a survivor — in every sense of the word — and a talented, focused athlete that has never known the word “can’t.”
How about a 34-year-old — who had already been in a motorcycle accident that most people wouldn’t have walked away from — playing semi pro ball with the Tulsa Titans?
That was about a decade ago and Turner now is back at Bartlesville as an assistant varsity boys basketball coach.
There’s something indescribably nice about this former hero of the Bruin Blue & White giving back to his alma mater.
Had he played in almost any other Bartlesville High School basketball era, Turner would probably be heralded as one of the greatest basketball players to ever wear a Bartlesville jersey.
At 6-foot-2, Turner could do it all — bring the ball downcourt against pressure, dish it off, penetrate and kick-out or climb the invisible ladder that elevated him high above the rim and or players several inches taller.
That might be the enduring image of Turner — rising above the stormy static to attain the stratosphere of clarity and purpose.
That’s how Turner came within a terrible twist of fate of playing in the NBA.
That’s how he walked away from a highway calamity that might have left most people writhing in broken dreams.
After he played basketball at Hillsdale, Turner moved to Arizona and became acquainted with the Phoenix Suns organization — which led to a tryout with the Sacramento Kings.
Turner also played in five or six NBA summer league games in Las Vegas.
“I was in the running for a possible roster spot (with Sacramento) for 2004,” Turner said.
He decided to move to Sacramento to devote himself to that quest.
That’s when fate sent him a different direction — flying through the air in a motorcycle accident that occurred at 120 mph. Turner flipped end over end four times.
“It compressed all the bones in my neck,” and caused some other damage, Turner said. “I walked away from it. I count my blessings.”
With one door closed, God opened another one, which included moving back to Bartlesville and coaching.
As mentioned, about a decade ago a misunderstanding led him to suiting up for the semi pro basketball team Tulsa Titans, when he was 34, along with Dewey High product Trey Osborne.
Turner first got involved in the franchise with the understanding he would be a coach.
But when he showed up for practice, “The coach didn’t know I wasn’t a part of the team and he said we need a guy like you. … It was a pretty neat experience.”
Earlier in the 2000s, Turner also played on the And1 Live Tour.
“They were kind of a street ball Harlem Globetrotters team,” he said. “I played in two early stops on their tour.”
But he decided he didn’t like that brand of playing.
Several years ago, after he transferred back to Bartlesville, Turner said former Bruin head coach Clent Stewart approached him about coaching. Turner initially turned down the offer — but then changed his mind.
“I coached the eighth grade team for five or six years and moved up with Tommy (DeSalme, new Bruin head coach) last year,”
DeSalme left to coach on the college level, but new Bruin skipper Jake Christenson retained Turner on his staff.
“It’s been self-rewarding,” he said. “I think I’ve fallen in love with the development of these young kids.”
Two of them include his sons Jaden and Jordan, both young varsity players. Jordan currently is sidelined due to injury.
Yes, it’s been a life rife with challenges and triumphs for Turner. Even when the path hasn’t been smooth, he’s brought his best.
Turner made the best of his senior season (1998-99) which turned out to be star-crossed for the potentially explosive Bruins.
Going into the week of the opening game tip-off, Bruins head coach Wes Brown appeared to have arguably one of the strongest starting five in the Frontier Conference, led by Turner and 6-foot-5 center N’Mir Johnson.
But the OSSAA dealt Bartlesville a haymaker square on the chin when it announced the day before the 1998 opener that Johnson had used up his playing eligibility.
This blow did more than expose Bartlesville’s slim depth in the post and deprive it of an ‘A’ quality performer on both sides of the court. The decision also created a psychological blast hard for the Bruins to recover from.
But remaining senior standouts Turner and Jon Thompson put the team on their shoulders and others stepped up their level of play.
Turner, especially, turned out to be The Man.
According to a Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise article that season: If … Chris Turner had a nickname, it might be Smooth Lightning. Only, unlike the real thing, Turner can definitely strike twice in the same place.”
Throughout the December schedule, he scored 15-or-more points in every game helping the Bruins carry a 2-4 record into Christmas.
He made his biggest impact on a stunning overtime upset victory at Owasso, 54-52, in the final game of December.
The 6-foot-3 Turner poured in 17 points (followed by Thompson with 16 and DeMario Frey and Marc Lemons with nine apiece).
Turner would go on to lead the Frontier Conference in scoring and earn a basketball opportunity at Hillsdale Baptist College — where he would also excel as a freshman. (More about that in a moment.)
Turner seemed to have a genius for being in the right place and for possessing the right tools to make good things happen.
A Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise newspaper article in 1999 noted that: “…he’s a fearless force in the paint, slicing to the hoop and working the ball in the hoop with an assortment of reverses, finger rolls, hooks and some other moves that haven’t yet been named.”
In what would have been a seismic upset in Class 6A, Bartlesville nearly knocked off Broken Arrow on its homecourt, thanks to Turner’s 24 points. Broken Arrow held on to win, 48-46.
Bartlesville surged to an early 19-10 lead. During that stretch, Turner hit a three-pointer set up by N’Mir Johnson’s out-of-bounds save and no-look pass. He scored Bartlesville’s 18th and 19th points on a fast break triggered by Marcus Johnson’s assist.
(It should be noted that the OSSSA reinstated Johnson to play after Christmas.)
Some of Turner’s other basketball highlights from 1998-99 included:
— Burying 25 points in a 65-54 win against Independence (Kan.) for Bartlesville’s first win.
— Nailing 17 points in a 61-50 loss to Valley Center (Thompson and Chris Mueller would add 13 and 10 points, respectively).
— Scoring 24, including a clutch last minute free throw, in a 62-60 win at Ponca City. (Thompson hit the winning bucket.)
Thompson also played a starring role in one of the wildest fourth quarter rides a Bruin team has ever taken. It took place in a regional playoff game against Sapulpa.
Sapulpa led by 24 points at half by 23 points after three quarters, 54-31. But the game was far from done.
Turner buried three treys in the final period — and teammates combined four more to energize the Bruins to a 30-point rampage. One of Turner’s bombs narrowed the margin to 12 points, 68-56. Thompson would tally a team-high 28 points.
But Sapulpa nailed 15-of-18 free throws in the quarter and pulled out the win, 74-61.
Had the Bruins done better than a 6-17 record, there’s a golden chance Turner would have been a lock for All-State.
In addition to basketball, Turner also invested his athleticism into the track team.
In 1999, he helped fuel the boys 4x100 relay squad to a fifth place at two meets. Other Bruins in both relays included Zack Willis, Frye and Mike Abraham.
Turner also helped the Bruins win silver medals in two 4x400m relays, which also included Phillip Cain, Travis Keith and Frye.
He also placed four times in the high jump at 5-foot-10.
As mentioned, he would play college basketball at Hillsdale Baptist.
Partway through his freshman year he owned the team’s second-highest scoring average (13 ppg), including two 25-point games.
Turner combined all the assets needed to assemble a great basketball player — toughness, smoothness, verticality, height, fearlessness, determination, general athleticism, intelligence, balance and intuition.
He likely would have excelled with any Bruin team in any era.
Turner also remains grateful his destiny has been linked with Bartlesville.
“It’s a great place to learn how to be a positive human being,” he said.
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This series has featured the following athletes, listed in no particular order.
-Jena’ Williams, Bartlesville
-Eric Rolfs, Bartlesville
-Chris Smith, Caney Valley
-Jill Bryan, Copan
-Barron Tanner Jr, Bartlesville
-Hailey Tucker, Bartlesville
-Jeremy Dunkle, Dewey
-Whitney Metcalf, Bartlesville
-Tim Hamilton, Bartlesville
-Danielle Koster, Bartlesville
-Carson LaRue, Dewey
-John Hamman, Wesleyan Christian
-Jamie Elam, Caney Valley
-Sam Mitchell, Bartlesville
-Karissa Jones, Dewey
-Noah Hartsock, Bartlesville
-Tiffany Paper, Copan
-AJ Parker, Bartlesville
-Tiffany Eden, Caney Valley
-Henry Williams, Bartlesville
-Markell Carter, Bartlesville
-Rebecca Schluter, Wesleyan Christian
-Adam Hibdon, Barnsdall
-Tishuana Hunter, Nowata
-Nate Alleman, Bartlesville
-Jessie Burch, Dewey
-Joey McNair, Caney Valley/Bartlesville
-Michael Thompson, Bartlesville
-Kate Steward, Bartlesville
-Jarrett Rouse, Community
-Amanda Warehime, Bartlesville
-Trey Osborne, Dewey
-Heather Lanphear, Barnsdall
-Erin Epperson, Bartlesville
-Levi Wyrick, Caney Valley (Kan.)
-Spencer Magana, Dewey
-Jackie Jo Chaney, Copan
-Haley Downey, Bartlesville
-Cooper Fogle, Caney Valley
-Amanda Brown, Copan
-Rachel Smith, Pawhuska
-Casey Cassity, Barnsdall
-Stacy Cornforth, Bartlesville
-Gabby Higbee, Dewey
-Kirby Schoenthaler, Bartlesville
-Tyler Kay, Barnsdall
-Colton Penrod, Bartlesville
-Erin Herchock, Dewey
-Lindsey Collins, Caney Valley
-Nathan Hughes, Bartlesville
-Aaron Hunt, Copan
-Calan Crowder, Bartlesville
-Colby Kohlmeyer, Caney Valley
-Allison Hunt, Copan
-Stephen Garrett, Dewey
-Brett Turowski, Bartlesville
-Hayley Bryan, Copan
-Kaitlyn Ritchie, Bartlesville
-Caroline Courtney, Bartlesville
-Preston Bartley, Copan
Chris Turner with two sons Jaden and Jordan
Chris Turner