I played, the more I liked the game." In September 1938, Turner first gained national attention when Associated Press photographer Jimmy Laughead, playing off Turner's strength and his background growing up in West Texas Hereford cattle country, took his picture posing with a 240-pound calf around his shoulders. Turner later recalled posing with the calf: "That day about did me in. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life." Turner played center for Hardin–Simmons for three years, and during that time, the football team compiled records of 8–0–1 in 1937, 8–2 in 1938, 7–1–1 in 1939. At the end of the 1939 season, Turner was selected by the New York Sun as the first-team center on the 1939 College Football All-America Team. He was also named to the Associated Press "Little All-America" team. He played in post-season all-star games including the East–West Shrine Game on January 1, 1940, and the Chicago College All-Star Game on August 29, 1940. NFL playing career In December 1939, Turner was selected by the Chicago Bears with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 1940 NFL Draft. He was the only lineman selected in the first ten picks. In June 1940, Turner signed a three-year contract with the Bears. While Turner was in college, he was the subject of recruitment efforts by George Richards, the owner of the Detroit Lions. An NFL investigation concluded that Richards had tampered with Turner by paying for Turner's dental work, giving him $100, and advising him to announce publicly that he would not play professional football so as to dissuade other teams from drafting him. The NFL fined the Lions $5,000 for the violation. As a rookie, Turner, at age 21, appeared in 11 games, nine of them as the starting center, for the 1940 Chicago Bears team that compiled an 8–3 record and defeated the Washington Redskins, 73–0, in the NFL Championship Game. In the championship game, Turner intercepted a Sammy Baugh pass and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown. At the end of the 1940 season, he was selected as a first-team All-Pro by the Chicago Herald-American and as a second-team All-Pro by the National Football League (NFL), United Press (UP), and International News Service (INS). He was one of only two rookies (Don Looney was the other) to receive All-Pro honors in 1940. In 1941, Turner appeared in all