A great read about the 1988 Crusader Football Championship! "We were a team. No matter what, we played for each other, Coach Klinefelter and for our community.” Jeff does a great job capturing the spirit of his Crusader team and the teams before and after him, the Crusaders are all about community. No matter the graduation year, the Cru are family on the field and off. 

Steve Doerschuk

December 3, 2024

“1988 is a long time ago,” said Jeff Turner, quarterback of the ’88 Canton Central Catholic Crusaders. “I only remember so much.”

He remembers the ride home from Columbus. It makes him laugh.

The Crusaders had just knocked off Versailles in the Division IV state championship game.

“We had a police escort,” Turner said. “It might have been Tom Allison or Nick Mascitti who got Public Enemy blasting on the bus.

“It might not have flown at any other time, but I don’t think Coach K told anybody to turn it off.”

“Don’t Believe the Hype” was a 1988 Public Enemy song that could have been a Lowell Klinefelter bumper sticker.

“We were a humble team,” Turner said. “If you weren’t humble in victory and defeat, you couldn’t play for Coach Klinefelter.

“We always knew we had to work our butts off. He constantly emphasized preparation, preparation, preparation. Every practice was repetition, repetition, repetition.”

The Turners lived near Meyers Lake at the intersection of 17th and Woodlawn. The Klinefelters were neighbors. The Duffys lived a few doors down.

The Duffy twins, Roger and Pat, eventually became teammates and starting linemen at Penn State.

“They were huge,” Turner said. “I don’t know how they fit in their house.

“There was a little incline on the street. I watched these big dudes run up and down that street as part of their training. You don’t think that inspired me?”

The twins were seniors on Central Catholic’s 1985 team that lost to Steubenville in the Division II state quarterfinals. Turner grew to a fair size himself, a put-together 6-foot-3.

He was a sophomore linebacker on a strong 1986 team quarterbacked by Chris Maloney. The Crusaders took on undefeated McKinley in Game 7 and led 23-7 before falling 26-23. McKinley beat Massillon 23-6 later that season, a reflection of Central Catholic's ability to hang with the big dogs.

Turner learned a new trick.

“Sophomore year, they came to me and asked if I wanted to play some quarterback,” he said. “First and foremost, I was a linebacker. I had never played quarterback, but when you’re asked to play a position for Coach Klinefelter, you do it.”

Turner, fellow junior Dan Massarelli and senior Dave Manderine all played quarterback in 1987.

On a social note, Turner and Suzanne Eberhardt, a Central Catholic athlete one class down from him, went mini-golfing together. They took in "Beverly Hills Cop II."

In the spring of ’88, Turner pitched and played third base on a loaded baseball team that included his brother Scott, Massarelli, Manderine and ace pitcher Sam Bourquin.

“We should have won the state championship,” Jeff Turner said. “We wanted to give that to (coach) Doug Miller so bad. We lost to Bedford Chanel in regionals.”

The baseball seniors graduated. Turner moved through summer break pointing to his own senior year as the No. 1 quarterback for the ’88 Crusaders.

“He was a pretty good quarterback and a great defensive player,” Klinefelter said. "Everybody respected Jeff."

Turner understood he wasn't Bernie Kosar. He did what was asked as a QB. He knew what to do for a defense that became Central Catholic's version of the 1985 Bears.

Klinefelter sported a fresh face and longish blonde locks that would have fit in a rock band. He was 44 going on 29. Young Jeff Lindesmith was in his third year on Klinefelter’s staff.

“Jeff Turner was a big physical specimen, a great linebacker,” recalls Lindesmith, who succeeded Klinefelter as head coach in 2014. “At quarterback, he didn’t turn the ball over often, which was really important because we were so good defensively.

“We ran the veer, and he did a good job. When he pulled in the ball off a read, he was always very difficult to tackle.”

The ’88 line included future Ohio State starter Dave Monnot. The main ball carriers were Tom Allison and Massarelli, who combined to run for 2,100 rushing yards.

“We could run over people,” Klinefelter said.

Running against the Crusaders was borderline impossible, thanks to the likes of Eric Wolfinger, Darren Grisez, Maurice Sullivan and John Petry. The pass defense was a picks machine, led by Nick Buckler’s eight interceptions.

Joe Bajornas, Matt Fox and Nick Pace were among other stalwarts.  

On offense, Turner passed for 960 yards and nine TDs. One of his receivers was Ryan Klinefelter, Lowell’s son (and years later the best man in Turner’s wedding).  

The Crusaders went 8-2 in an intense regular season. They lost slugfests with Boardman and Walsh Jesuit. They beat McKinley.

In a thriller that kept the playoffs in play – qualifying was a bear then − they trailed Jackson 14-12 prior to a late interception by Turner that set up Joe Vitale’s game-winning field goal with 16 seconds left.

Another late Vitale field goal beat McKinley 9-6. The rivalry with St. Thomas Aquinas hit fever pitch when the teams collided in both the regular-season finale and in the first round of the playoffs.

Aquinas played in state championship games in 1984 and 1985 and was strong again.

“They had the best quarterback in the county, I thought,” Turner said. “Good luck trying to beat Pat Sedmock twice.”

It was Sedmock’s tough luck to face Central Catholic’s defense twice. The Crusaders won 7-0 and 18-0.

It was more of the same on defense in regional finals and state semis, wins of 6-0 over Warren JFK at Youngstown State, and 46-0 over Loudonville at Baldwin-Wallace.

Ohio crowned state champions in five divisions then. Ohio Stadium, home of the Buckeyes, became the championship games’ home in 1982, when Massillon lost to Moeller in Division I.

In 1984, both Hoover (Division I) and Aquinas (Division IV) reached championship games at “The Shoe." Aquinas made it back in ’85.

Starting in 1990, Massillon became the primary home for the finals. In recent times, for the most part, the title games have been in Canton − all seven will be at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium this week.

The 1988 Crusaders were in the latter days of “the Columbus era.” Where they took the field didn't really matter to Turner.

“We believed we could play with anybody in the state, regardless of the division,” he said. “We knew our coaching staff was going to have a fantastic game plan.”

Central Catholic's opponent in the D4 finals was Midwest Athletic Conference power Versailles in an 11 a.m. kickoff. The Crusaders dug right in to brunch ball.  

They moved the ball. They stopped the run.

Jamie Mescher, Versailles’ first-team All-Ohio quarterback, launched a pass over the middle that was read perfectly by Turner, a second-team All-Ohio linebacker. Turner stuck up a hand as he glided to the ball. He made an interception, then stayed on the field to quarterback the offense.

The Central Catholic defense allowed 92 yards in a 21-6 win.

The boys on the bus cranked up the music and, with a police escort, led a caravan back to the Central Catholic parking lot. Everyone hung out for quite a while. Passersby honked until the sun went down on Tuscarawas Avenue.

The season was full of moments.

Allison ran for more than 1,000 yards and then played at Mount Union as the Larry Kehres dynasty took shape.

Monnot was named 1988 Ohio lineman of the year for Division IV.  

Mark Wise made a late-in-the-game tackle that preserved a shutout streak reaching 19 straight quarters.

“Father (Robert) Kaylor was a constant presence,” Turner said. “His prayers … his motivational speeches … he always got the school pumped up.”

Those four left this world in fairly recent times, Allison on March 18, 2020, Monnot on Feb. 26, 2022, Wise on Sept. 13, 2022, and Kaylor on Nov. 10, 2023.

“They were a big part of the season and the team,” Turner said. “It’s tough for the whole Central Catholic community to lose them.”

As time goes by Turner's appreciation of 1988 as a shared experience, moved by the hand of God, increases. He goes out of his way to mention more names of teammates and coaches than fit in an article.

Versailles never faced Central Catholic before or since.

The coaches lived somewhat parallel lives.

Klinefelter, now 80, was 70 when he retired as Stark County's all-time leader with 252 head coaching wins across 41 seasons. Versailles' Al Hetrick went on to win six state titles in a 38-year run at Versailles. He was 84 when he died on April 28 this year.

Linebacker was Turner's position at Kent State. Head coach Glenn Mason recruited Jack Rose away from St. Thomas Aquinas in 1986. Rose, in turn, helped recruit Turner to the Golden Flashes.

“Jack was the reason I went to Kent State,” Turner said. “I wish I could have played for him longer.”

"Bob Stoops coached outside linebackers at Kent State when we started watching Jeff on film," Rose said. "I bet we didn't watch him playing linebacker for a minute when Bob said, 'We've got to offer that guy.'"

Turner hung tough while Kent State struggled. He earned a degree and entered the business world. His current post is with Kohl's as a regional vice president.

Those first dates with Suzanne led to something. They have been married for 28 years and have three children, Christian, Gracie and Sydney, who were student-athletes at Central Catholic.

Christian played on the Crusader baseball team that won a 2019 regional championship. Sydney played on the volleyball team that took a regional title in 2023.

“Your championships don’t mean anything when you see your kids do it,” Jeff said.

Looking back to his state championship, reflecting on life since then, Turner marvels at how circumstances form an uncanny life tapestry.

“I’m blessed,” he said. “My wife has kept our family grounded in faith.

"We attend St. Michael’s Catholic Church. God is always in the center for us.

"Even back then, I was very faith-filled because of the way I was raised. I’m so thankful for my parents. They found a way to get us to Central Catholic. It’s a fantastic school."

Now and then, Turner breaks out his Central Catholic helmet. It looks like a linebacker wore it, a real gladiator piece.

“We had a really good team," he says. "We weren’t the best athletes, or the fastest, or the strongest. We were a team. No matter what, we played for each other, Coach Klinefelter and for our community.”

To read more visit: The Canton Repository.