Melvin Turpin

One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Melvin Turpin: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you own something he signed — or you know who might — there is a note at the foot of this page.

Kentucky made him an All-American — a 6'11" center who once hit 18 of 22 shots for 42 points against Tennessee and started on the Wildcats' 1984 Final Four team. Washington took him sixth overall in 1984 and dealt him straight to Cleveland. Cleveland traded him to the Jazz in October 1987, and after one season Utah sent him to Spain's CAI Zaragoza in exchange for Jose Ortiz, part of an NBA run of 361 games and 8 points a night.

Weight troubles in a draft class holding Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley and Stockton got him labeled a bust, but he kept his humor, telling Sports Illustrated in 2004 that the era's thinking on big men 'was medieval.' Fork Union Military Academy enshrined him in 2000. He died in July 2010, at 49.

HOW HE CAME & WENTCleveland sent him and Darryl Dawkins to Utah for Kent Benson and Dell Curry on October 8, 1987, a three-team deal meant to thicken the Jazz front line. A year later Utah swapped him to Zaragoza in Spain for Jose Ortiz.

Full name

Melvin Harrison Turpin

Utah Jazz tenure

1987–88

Position

Center

Born

1960, Lexington, Kentucky

Died

2010

Height

6′11″ (211 cm)

Weight

240 lb (109 kg)

College

Kentucky

Drafted

1984, 1st round (No. 6), Washington