Doug Turnbull

Turnbull was born on July 23, 1904, in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.[1] He attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1921.[2] While there, he played football, basketball, and lacrosse, and as a senior he captained the lacrosse team.[2] During his time at Poly, his lacrosse teams defeated cross-town rival Baltimore City College three out of four times and also beat collegiate teams of Maryland and Penn.[2]

Doug Turnbull attended college at Johns Hopkins University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1924. During the following year he continued postgraduate studies in engineering, mathematics, and thermodynamics.[2] Turnbull was a two-time president of the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society in 1924 and 1925.[2]

As an undergraduate, Turnbull became the first college lacrosse player named to the USILA All-America first team all four years of his collegiate career,[3][4][5][6] a feat that has been matched only five times since (by Everett Smith, Frank Urso, Del Dressell, Jason Coffman, and Mikey Powell).[7] He played every lacrosse position with the exception of goalkeeper.[2] He played on the Hopkins football team as a left halfback, and in 1923, led the nation in placekicking.[8] That season, he made six field goals and fifteen extra points.[2] Head football coach Ray Van Orman named Turnbull to his All-Time Hopkins Football Team, and lacrosse coach Bill Schmeisser named him to his Honor Roll of Hopkins Lacrosse Tradition.[2] Turnbull was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1962.[2] He was inducted into the charter class of the Johns Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.[9]

Turnbull worked for the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company from 1925 to 1943.[2] He became a member of the company's Executive Department on September 1, 1943.[2] In 1962, he was working as the chairman of the Locomotive Development Committee, a member of the National Coal Policy Conference, a trustee of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, a member of the Physical Fitness Commission, and the Off-Street Parking Commission.[2]

Turnbull continued playing lacrosse after college with the prestigious Mount Washington Lacrosse Club from 1926 to 1938, including as team captain in 1930.[2] Turnbull managed the club's ice hockey team in 1932 and 1933.[2] He served as an assistant lacrosse coach for the club in 1939 and 1940.[2] In 1934, he coached lacrosse at the Gilman School.[2] Turnbull occasionally worked as a scout for Johns Hopkins, Mount Washington, and Army.[2]

Jack Turnbull, another Johns Hopkins lacrosse star, was Doug's younger brother.[10] He is the namesake of the Jack Turnbull Award for college lacrosse's top attackman.[10] In 1927, Turnbull married Virginia née Steuart, with whom he had five children, four sons and one daughter.[2]

Turnbull died in his sleep at the age of 91 on April 12, 1996, at Fairhaven Retirement Center in Sykesville, Maryland.[1]