Had tried to reach Bret Bearup on Friday for my Saturday column remembering Melvin Turpin. A teammate of Turpin’s at UK, now a front-office executive with the Denver Nuggets, Bret got back to me today with this e-mail:
Hearing about Melvin yesterday was like getting punched in the gut. Dying suddenly, like in a car accident or having a heart attack, is one thing. There isn’t anything anybody can do about that. Suicide….that puts you in a dark place full of unanswered questions. Anybody who has been his friend or has known him asks these questions: why didn’t I know he was feeling this way? What could I have done to help? We all feel a little guilty. Maybe we shouldn’t….but we do. It’s very difficult to reconcile suicide with who we knew him to be….a happy guy with a quick smile who rambled through life.
We came to UK as freshmen together. Oddly, it took Melvin a long time to remember my name, but he remembered fellow freshmen Jim Masters’ and Dickys’ name from the beginning. That first summer in the weight room, he weighed in at 199, me at 212. He was a stick, spindly.
After a punishing summer and fall of weightlifting, I was at 227 and he was at 220. I maxed out at 233, but he just kept going up, and up, and up. At the end, Coach Hall had a manager follow him around campus to make sure he wasn’t eating anything other than what he was supposed to. I will never forget walking out of my room and seeing the manager sitting on the floor outside of Melvins’ room, ready to follow Melvin whenever he left. When I walked outside, I notice a commotion in the trees next to the lodge outside Melvins’ window. I stepped aside to look, and saw a pizza delivery man handing Melvin a pizza through the window.
Every fall, we ran a series of 220 yard sprints to get us in shape for the season. Guards were in one group, then wings, then bigs. I ran with Melvin. Melvin was unbelievably fast for a big man. He smoked everyone on the front line. He could run with Charles Hurt, who was an amazing runner. I marveled at his quickness and athleticism for such a big man.
Melvin had a smile and an easy laugh for everyone. I’ll miss him.
