Colorado University Athletics
Three Decades After Leaving CU, Buffs Great Bridget Turner Earns Degree
May 25, 2020 | Women's Basketball, Alumni C Club, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — "Finish what you started."
Bridget Turner has always done her best to live by that motto, and she has more often than not succeeded. A standout high school basketball player at Aurora Hinkley, she went on to the University of Colorado, where she enjoyed a Hall of Fame career for Ceal Barry's Buffaloes. She led CU to its first NCAA Tournament berth (1988) and the program's first Big Eight conference tournament title (1989), along with earning Big Eight Player of the Year honors in 1989 when the Buffs ran the table in the conference season (14-0) before winning the league tournament as well.Â
After that came a stint with the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, then some time with WNBA's Houston Comets Developmental Team. She was also inducted into the Colorado Sportswomen's Hall of Fame (1989) and the CU Sports Hall of Fame (2010), and has carved out a successful career as a behavioral specialist, currently with UC Health. It is a rewarding career, as she specializes in helping people deal with issues ranging from dementia to alcohol and drug withdrawal to suicide prevention.
But ever since leaving CU after her standout career, there's been one bit of unfinished business.
A degree.Â
"It was always something that my parents instilled in me as being important," Turner said recently. "When I left to go play with the Globetrotters, it was something I told myself I had to finish. But after the Globetrotters, I got married and kind of put it on the back burner. It seemed like there was always a detour."
But in 2009, her father, Ernie Turner, passed away.
"One of his last wishes for me that he spoke before he passed away — he told me, 'You need to finish,'" Turner said. "That stayed heavy on my mind. I told my dad I would do that."
Still, there were more detours. Several years ago, her mother became seriously ill and moved in with Bridget. As Turner balanced her career and caretaking duties, the chance to return to school and earn her diploma always seemed just out of reach.
 "There was always something that had me put it aside," Turner said.
But finally, roughly 18 months ago, Turner decided it was time. Her mother's condition improved somewhat and she adjusted her work schedule to consist of three 12-hour shifts per week.
That left three day a week to drive to Boulder and attend class. It wasn't easy — "draining" is how she described it — but in the end, she finished what she started.
On May 16, Bridget Turner became a graduate of the University of Colorado.
The first person she contacted was her former coach.
"I remember when Ceal was being inducted to the Hall of Fame and they gave the percentage of all her athletes who graduated, and they gave that percentage. And I said, 'I'm not in that percentage — I'm going to be in that percentage.'"
Indeed, the graduation rate for Barry's players was always one of her proudest achievements during her Hall of Fame coaching career. In an email, Barry (who recently announced her retirement from her administrative position with the CU Athletic Department) noted, "It always bothered Bridget, that in reading some of my bios from CU, it always said 'graduated all of her four year players but two.' She knew she was one of the two. Well, now we can say 'graduated all of her four-year players but one.' Bridget fulfilled her dad's deathbed wish and graduated today, May 16, 2020, 31 years after she left CU to go play for the Globetrotters … She got it done, and I'm so proud of her."
Turner knew Barry would be happy — and she knows her father would be proud as well.
"I've always been taught to finish what you started," Turner said. "That was a goal I had set when I set foot on campus that many years ago. I took different detours, but it never left my mind. When my dad said it, that just put more of a fire underneath me. Just to be successful and finish what I started is gratifying."
There were other motivations along the way as well. Turner has served as a middle school and high school coach in the Denver suburbs and she has always stressed the importance of education to her players.
"The term 'student-athlete' always stood in my mind," Turner said. "You have to complete both. I always stressed to my players that you have to do both — you have to be a student and an athlete. I figured I had to keep my end of the bargain."
Turner, who still gets on the court and practices with her players whenever possible, has her name etched liberally throughout the CU record books. To this day, she is still the only player in CU history to lead the team in scoring (15.1 points per game), rebounding (6.9 rpg) and assists (4.7 apg) in the same season, a feat she accomplished in 1989. That is also the year Colorado hosted the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the opener against UNLV was the first sellout in the history of the CU Events Center.
The Buffs were 83-38 in Turner's career at Colorado, when the Buffs won one Big Eight regular season title, one conference tourney championship and two runner-up finishes. The 1988 team was CU's first NCAA Tournament entrant, the beginning of a long string of success for Barry's Buffs.
"I'll always be proud of the fact that we got the ball rolling," Turner said. "We started all that success. Our team set the stage for all the great teams that kept coming after that. It's always been something I think all of us were proud of. There's a lot of great tradition in the program and we were a big part of getting all of that going."
And now, some three decades later, Turner is part of another great tradition of CU basketball:
She has a degree, something she hopes might inspire and motivate other student-athletes in the future.
"It's never too late," she said. "Keep working. When the time comes, it's worth it."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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