Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 10:27 a.m.
Nate Turner was busy eating chicken fingers and a salad in a popular Maryland Parkway establishment across the street from UNLV.
An NBA playoff game was occupying his attention. Turner, a junior college All-America wide receiver from Compton (Calif.) College, could have been just another college kid enjoying a bite to eat.
His biggest problem this afternoon was not finishing a term paper, but deciding which girlfriend to hang out with that evening.
"I went to a party last night and these two girls kind of started fighting over me," he said with a smile. "It was crazy."
But nothing compared to what Nate Turner saw while growing up on the gang-infested streets of Compton and Watts.
Nate Turner's road to UNLV included a lot more potholes than your normal college student.
"It is by the grace of God that I'm here now," Turner says. "By the grace of God."
Nate Turner was in the fifth grade living in his family's house in Compton when his life dramatically changed for the first time.
"I was playing with some firecrackers and I burned our house down," Turner said.
"My mom had gone to the grocery store. My sister (Markia) and I were there all alone. We were watching Batman. It was right after the Fourth of July. I was in a room popping off some old firecrackers I had saved. I lit one and turned my head and I didn't hear a pop. I looked back and the whole window area was on fire.
"I ran to get some water and when I got back the whole wall was on fire. By that time, I was screaming, 'We have to get outta here.' "
Nobody got hurt but Turner's family lost everything.
"Clothes, pictures, everything," he said.
"We weren't rich to begin with. But losing everything like that meant we had to start over. ... Still, my mom didn't give me a whuppin' for it or anything. When she came home and saw the house burned to the ground, she was just glad we had all made it out alive."
Turner and his family bounced around between apartments in some of the less desirable areas of Compton and Long Beach.
His troubles were only beginning.
Mean streets
Nate Turner just turned 21 this month. That he made it to that milestone is remarkable when you consider he grew up in some of the toughest places in the nation -- Compton and the infamous Jordan Downs Housing Projects in Watts.
"I've seen people get killed in front of my face for a dollar in a dice game ... their whole face blown off," Turner said. "I saw a buddy of mine sell dope to the mother of his friend. I mean, these guys grew up together and you're selling dope to his mom?
"I used to be in a gang. I used to sell drugs. My mom worked nights. My father wasn't there. I'd be in the streets every night. I was like a vampire. When it was dark, I was outside.
"I used to hustle," Turner continues. "Everything across the board. You name it, I did it."
But a visit to jail when he was 17 -- over some outstanding traffic tickets of all things -- helped Turner see that his life was quickly headed on the road to nowhere.
"I was put in there with murderers and rapists," Turner said. "I was in the same cell with these guys. Just being in there made me sick to my stomach. I knew this wasn't the place for me."
He credits Pastor Earnest Johnson at the Todd Bridges Youth Center in Compton and Compton College football coach Cornell Ward with helping him turn his life around.
"They made me see where I was going," Turner said. "You're not going to do right unless you want to do right.
"I feel the reason I'm in this position now at UNLV is because I'm blessed. I was chosen by God. I started looking around and some of my buddies were going to jail. Others were getting killed. I thought, 'Do I want to do this?'
"I figured I wanted to do something positive with my life. I wanted to see the brighter side of life. I was tired of the darker side. So I had to humble myself and ask God for another opportunity. He (gave me one) and I'm not going to blow it."
Another Keyshawn?
The 6-2, 205-pound Turner was one of new UNLV football coach John Robinson's first recruits last December.
Robinson already has started comparing Turner to another wide receiver who turned his life around after growing up in inner-city L.A., Keyshawn Johnson of the Jets.
"Nate is fearless the way he goes after the ball," Robinson said. "He was the star of spring practice the way he was diving all over the field for balls."
Like Keyshawn, Turner has overcome his childhood gang problems to make it to a Division I school. He also isn't afraid to talk about his athletic accomplishments, like Keyshawn would routinely do around Heritage Hall.
Unlike Johnson, however, he never ordered a hot dog at the concession stand after scoring a touchdown in a junior college game.
Although he played Pop Warner football with new UNLV quarterback recruit Jason Thomas and played high school ball with Ortege Jenkins (now at Arizona) at Long Beach Jordan High School as a freshman, it really wasn't until his sophomore year at Compton College that Turner really flourished.
One of his best games came against Johnson's old school -- West Los Angeles JC -- when he caught 14 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns.
"It was my last chance," Turner said. "My back was against the wall. I told myself that if I was going to do it, now was the time. I was too old to be farting around anymore. I had nobody to impress but myself."
It worked. Schools such as USC, Oregon State and UNLV offered scholarships to Turner, who passed 29 units his final semester to get his Associate of Arts of degree in time to enroll at UNLV in time for spring practice.
"Core classes, too," Turner said. "General education classes that I needed in order to get my degree. I did it ... barely."
How?
"I really didn't practice much," he said. "I was pretty much in class all day and night. I would check in with the coaches about the game plan and go out and play."
Turner caught 72 passes and scored 12 touchdowns last season. He was all set to sign with Oregon State until head coach Mike Riley left to take the head coaching job with the San Diego Chargers.
"That happened right after my recruiting trip there," he said. "I didn't know anything about John Robinson going to UNLV. But then (ex-UNLV assistant) DelVaughn Alexander called. They came to my house and talked about the whole situation here."
Although he is flattered by Robinson's comparisions to Johnson, Turner says making it to the NFL one day is only second on his list of goals.
"I have a 'To Do' list," he said. "The number one thing on that list is 'degree.' That would make my family and myself proud. No. 2 is NFL.
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