Coach

Just two seasons into his second tenure in San Diego, Norv Turner has already established himself as one of the most successful coaches in franchise history. Only the sixth head coach in NFL history to lead a team to the Championship Game in his first season at the helm, Turner has guided the Chargers to consecutive AFC West titles and three playoff wins, tied with Don Coryell and Bobby Ross for the most in team history. And Turner has saved his best coaching for late in the season as evidenced by his 9-0 record in December over the last two years.

In 2008, Turner led the Chargers through one of the greatest turnaround seasons in NFL history. His team started 4-8, but won its final four in a row to close the season 8-8. The Chargers won the AFC West title and became the first team in the current division format to win their division when trailing by three games with three left to play, and they did so with a thoroughly convincing 52-21 win over the Denver Broncos in the regular season finale.

Turner was again sensational in the playoffs, just as he was in 2007 when he led the Chargers to the AFC Championship Game. He led the Bolts to the Divisional Playoffs by pushing all the right buttons in the Wild Card round as San Diego overcame a late three-point deficit and beat the Indianapolis Colts in overtime.

Chargers fans got their first glimpse of Turner’s offensive wizardry in 2001 when he spent a season as the team’s offensive coordinator. San Diego’s offensive ranking improved 17 spots as the Bolts climbed from 28th to 11th in total offense. LaDainian Tomlinson finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting and the Chargers finished the season with a 3,000-yard passer (Doug Flutie), a 1,000-yard rusher (Tomlinson), and 1,000-yard receiver (Curtis Conway) for only the second time in team history.

Turner spent the next five seasons in Miami, Oakland and San Francisco. He spent two seasons as the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator (2002-03), two as the Raiders’ head coach (2004-05) and one as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator (2006). And six years later on February 19, 2007, Turner returned to San Diego as the new head coach of the Chargers.

His first season back in San Diego was filled with excitement. He led the team to 11 wins, a personal career-high, and joined Ross as the only coaches in team history to win the AFC West in their first season. Turner also became the first Chargers coach since Ross to win a playoff game, winning not just one, but two as San Diego defeated Tennessee in the Wild Card Playoffs and Indianapolis on the road in the Divisional round. The run ended in the AFC Championship Game in New England, where the injury-riddled Chargers fell to the Patriots, 21-12.

Turner was born in the Bay Area suburb of Martinez, California, the same city that produced baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. He grew up the middle of five children, all of whom were raised by his mother, Vicky, a single parent. Vicky battled multiple sclerosis, spending the latter years of her life in a wheelchair before her passing in 1989, and now his oldest sister Janis is also battling the disease. In tribute to his sister, and more so his mother and the personal sacrifices that she made for her family, Turner now serves on the board of the San Diego Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. In May, he played an instrumental role in the Society’s successful fundraising golf tournament.

Before her passing, Vicky steered her sons into sports. Norv’s younger brother, Ron, followed in his footsteps, excelling on the collegiate gridiron and later in the coaching profession. Ron is now in his ninth season as the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears and he has an NFC Championship from 2006 to his credit. Like his father and uncle, Norv’s eldest son, Scott, has also joined the coaching ranks and is in his second season as an offensive graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh.

As a teenager, Norv played quarterback and safety at Alhambra High School in Martinez. From there he earned a scholarship to the University of Oregon and received three varsity letters (1972-74) as a quarterback for the Ducks, spending two of his three seasons as the backup to former Charger and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts. One of the assistant coaches on Oregon’s staff, John Robinson, would later give Turner his first big break as a coach. Before that however, Turner landed a job of his own at Oregon as a graduate assistant after he graduated in 1975.

In 1976, Robinson moved on to the University of Southern California and invited Turner to go along. Turner would end up spending the next nine seasons in Los Angeles, winning four Rose Bowls and a national championship in 1978. He served as the Trojans’ wide receivers coach, defensive backs coach, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, and in 1980 tutored what is regarded by many as one of the finest defensive backfields in college football history, featuring safeties Ronnie Lott and Dennis Smith, both of whom went on to become NFL first-round draft choices in 1981. Also in that backfield was Joey Browner, who was drafted in the first round in 1983 by Minnesota, and a cornerback named Jeff Fisher, who would leave USC as a seventh round draft pick and later become the head coach of the Tennessee Titans.

In 1985, Turner landed his first NFL coaching job when Robinson hired him as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Rams. It was with the Rams that Turner got a chance to work beside offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese, a disciple of the “Air Coryell” offense, and Zampese taught Turner the ins and outs of the offensive system made famous by former Chargers Head Coach Don Coryell.

After seven seasons in Los Angeles, Jimmy Johnson asked Turner to serve as his offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys. It proved to be the launching point for Turner’s career. The Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowl titles (XXVII and XXVIII) following the 1992 and ‘93 seasons and Turner worked with three NFL Hall of Famers in Dallas: quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and wide receiver Michael Irvin.

Turner almost single-handedly resurrected Aikman’s career in Dallas. In the two seasons before his arrival, Aikman threw just 20 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions. In his first season in Turner’s offense, Aikman posted the first positive touchdown-to-interception ratio of his career and led the Cowboys to the NFC Divisional Playoffs. Then in 1992, his second season under Turner, Aikman passed for a career-high 3,445 yards with 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while leading Dallas to a 13-3 record and their first NFC East title since 1985. Aikman followed that up by directing the Cowboys to three-straight postseason wins and he was named the MVP of Dallas’ 52-17 win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII. The following year, Aikman completed a franchise-record 69.1 percent of his passes and led the Cowboys to a second-consecutive Super Bowl win over the Bills. When he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, Aikman asked Turner to be his presenter.

Smith and Irvin also flourished under Turner. When they led the NFL in rushing and receiving, respectively, in 1991, it marked the first time since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 that teammates led the league in both categories and it’s only happened one other time since (Indianapolis, 1999).

Catapulting off his success in Dallas, Turner was named the head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1994. It was his first-ever head coaching assignment and he ended up spending seven years in our nation’s capital. He led the Redskins to four winning seasons and an NFC East championship in 1999. During his tenure in Washington Turner was a mentor to two Pro Bowl quarterbacks, Gus Frerotte and Brad Johnson. Johnson flourished in Turner’s offensive system, throwing for 4,005 yards in ’99, just the second 4,000-yard season in Redskins history.

Last season, Philip Rivers became the latest Turner pupil to pass for more than 4,000 yards, and like Johnson, he too became the second quarterback in franchise history to throw for over 4,000 yards.

And besides Turner’s incredible success in developing quarterbacks, several running backs have also flourished in his system. Three of them in fact, including Tomlinson, have won NFL rushing titles while playing for Turner. Tomlinson captured his in 2007, while Smith won three under Turner (1991-93) and Miami’s Ricky Williams (2002) won one as well.

Turner, his wife, Nancy, and their youngest son, Drew, live in San Diego. Drew is in his sophomore year at the University of San Diego. Their daughter, Stephanie, lives in Los Angeles and is an actress who has appeared in several movies and television shows.