By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Basketball has taken Mark Turgeon a lot of places and given him a great deal of success over the past four decades.
And on Saturday basketball brought Turgeon back to Topeka and Hayden High, where it all started, with the Wildcats' 1982-83 team that posted a perfect 25-0 record on the way to the Class 4A state championship part of the 2022 Hayden Hall of Fame class.
Mark Turgeon (right) visits with Hayden athletic director Bobby Taul, an assistant coach during Turgeon's Wildcat playing career, before Saturday night's Hayden Hall of Fame induction ceremony. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I can't remember when I was here last,'' said Turgeon, who helped lead Hayden to back-to-back state titles as a junior and senior. "I came back for a football game a couple of months ago, I was in town for a Chiefs game, but I can't remember the last time I was in this building. It's been a long time.
"I think I was back for our 15th reunion, it might have been 10, but I think it was 15 and we're coming up on 40 here so it's been awhile.''
Turgeon, who played on a Final Four team at Kansas before embarking on a successful coaching career, said being back at Hayden with his former teammates and coaches tugged at his heartstrings.
"It's good to be back,'' he said. "We got together last night as a group and just to see everybody and be together and just talk about the good times, it's a lot of fun.
"It started at the Most Pure Heart playgrounds, we had a lot of good competition there. and then being at Hayden, it's the only place I ever wanted to go to high school growing up, and being a part of it and being on the basketball team, my dad played here and my brother played here and my uncle played here so it was important to me. I started coming to games when I was probably three or four years old, so it was a lot of fun just to be a part of it.''
Turgeon said that the closeness that the Wildcats had as a team continues to this day.
"Our bonds will never be broken because we were so close and went through so much together,'' he said. "A lot of us went to Most Pure Heart together and then we added (Chris) Gomez and Tommy Meier and they just blended right in.
"We just were really close, we really cared about each other and I think that's why we were able to do what we did because it was more than just basketball for us. It was about just being great friends.''
After graduating from Hayden, Turgeon became the first player in Kansas basketball history to play in four straight NCAA Tournaments, including the 1986 Final Four.
Turgeon went on to carve out a successful coaching career at Jacksonville State, Wichita State, Texas A & M and Maryland, taking 10 teams to the NCAA Tournament while compiling a career record of 471-272.
Ironically, Saturday's Hayden Hall of Fame induction came a year to the day after Turgeon stepped down at Maryland on Dec. 3, 2021.
"I was extremely burned out, I did it for a long time,'' Turgeon said. "I promised my wife I would take a full year off so I'm trying to do that and then I'm going to try to get involved in some different things.
"Whether I coach again we'll see, but it's not where I'm thinking I absolutely have to do it. It's something that if the right thing comes along and at the right time, and it's the best thing for my family, we'll do it. Otherwise, I'm content with my career. I had a good career, I had a lot of fun doing it.''
Turgeon said the chances of his returning to the bench are a long shot at this point, but he doesn't want to completely close the door on that possibility.
"It's mostly closed,'' Turgeon said. "It's 98 percent closed but you don't ever want to say it's 100 percent closed.''
