Road to 1991 Perfection: James Taught Turner, Huskies 'The Spartan Life'

Darius Turner, during his time in the University of Washington football program, repeatedly heard his coach reference "the Spartan life," that he wanted his players to follow it.

Admittedly, the fullback from Gardena, California, wasn't exactly sure what Don James talking about.

Fifteen years later, after sharing in the Huskies' national championship run, Turner saw the Hollywood film "300." It was an ancient epic war battle matching determined underdogs against an opponent with 10 times more soldiers, an outcome based more on preparation than numbers.

Right there, Turner slapped his forehead and made the connection.

"Coach James said he was teaching us to live the Spartan life," Turner said. "I never knew what that meant until I actually saw the movie 300, and I got it. We were forged through tough practices. The games were easy."

This is another in series of vignettes about the UW 1991 national championship team, supplementing the conversation for the pandemic-delayed season. We're in week 9, which brought a showdown with USC in Los Angeles.

Turner was a classic warrior just the same. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound back shared in three Rose Bowls and that national title. He was the good soldier, scoring 11 touchdowns in his career but becoming more of a blocker when the Huskies embraced Keith Gilbertson's spread offense midway through his Seattle stay.

He battled back injuries and encountered other UW backs who left him in awe, namely fellow SoCal product Beno Bryant, who became his travel roommate.

"One thing about Beno is the bigger the game, he took it to the next level," Turner said. "He could run at you 100 miles per hour, put a foot in the ground and go the other way, and not lose any speed. For me, if I had remotely tried it, I would have blown out my entire transmission."

Turner would give pro football a try with the Kansas City Chiefs before turning to a career as an insurance executive and trucking company owner. Along the way, he brought his young daughters back for a 20th reunion of the '91 national championship, and they were thrilled to see his name on a locker room wall and up on the stadium big screen.

Two decades ago, Turner tried to give back to his college football team in a big way, but nobody took him up on it.

He's the uncle of Reggie Bush, the running back who won a Heisman Trophy for USC (and gave it back for NCAA violations) and enjoyed a lengthy NFL career.

"I had him teed up, pretty close to wanting to go to U-Dub," Turner said.

This was under the Husky watch of Rick Neuheisel, who was told about the kid but didn't follow up.

Passing on Reggie Bush? Now that's truly the wrong kind of Spartan life.

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