A lifetime dedicated to hockey, as well as contribution to education, has seen Armidale's Vernon Turner one of the latest recipients of the prestigious Medal of the Order of Australia.
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As a player, Turner reached great heights in the sport, but what he took the most pride in was mentoring and developing the sport's up-and-coming superstars.
Born in 1924, Turner didn't start playing hockey until later in his teenage years when he began at Glebe Hockey Club.
He developed quickly as a player and rocketed up the ranks.
Turner played in the Glebe First Grade team from 1942 to 1957 and was part of 12 Sydney Hockey Association Premiership teams, including seven consecutive titles.
During that time he was also the assistant treasurer, was on the management committee and was the club's vice-captain.
Turner also played in the Sydney Senior Representative Men's team from 1944 to 1957 and in the NSW Senior Representative team from 1947 to 1955.
He captained the NSW team for six of the nine years he was part of it, and takes pride in the fact he helped develop many of his younger teammates, some of whom went on to play for Australia.
Turner was also a representative in the Australian Universities team in 1953.
But when asked what the highlight of his hockey career was, Turner highlighted his passion for developing players on and off the field.
"My desire was to have the boys develop as well as they could," he said.
"It was my pleasure to teach these people hockey to refine their skills.
"It was a joy for me to see them develop their skills."
He mentored players throughout his playing days and taught plenty more.
Turner also encouraged the players he taught to pass on their knowledge and skills to continue to nurture and foster the sport.
His son, Joseph Turner, said he also placed a big emphasis on sportsmanship as well as mastering the basics of the sport.
"The stuff that strikes me about Dad, and always came through, was how he always talked about having to be a gentleman to play the game," he said.
"And you always had to be a sportsman.
"That was a very big thing; it didn't matter if you won or lost, as long as you were a good sportsman about it.
"Dad was always very big on doing the basics, so he spent a lot of each training just doing the basics of hitting, trapping, the passing, positioning before doing complex things."
Turner highlighted three-time Olympian Pat Nilan as one of the best he'd taught.
"Pat Nilan was my best pupil," he said.
"He came as a raw player - no idea of hockey - but I recognised the skills in him when he came down to Wentworth Park to sharpen his skills.
"I realised he had talent and that skill I developed playing with him; he just simply showed me he was capable of developing skills and that was it."
Turner took charge of the Glebe club's junior teams from 1949 to 1958, doing everything from training sessions to running the competitions.
Known as the "father of junior hockey at Glebe", Turner visited schools across the area and encouraged children to take up the sport.
At a time when families were too poor to purchase hockey sticks and uniforms, Turner took it upon himself to buy material for his sister to make shirts.
He also collected broken hockey sticks and had them restored for children and their families to play, charging them nothing to sign up.
While coaching hockey, Turner discovered he had a love for teaching and graduated from the University of Sydney with a bachelor of arts (honours) in 1954.
He also received a master's in education in 1973, and a master's in arts from the University of New England in 1980.
His focus was Asian studies, and he was the first teacher of Indonesian language in Australian schools and published several books.
He married Theresia, an Indonesian woman, in 1974 and they moved to Armidale in 1975, where he taught at the then Armidale College of Advanced Education.
He continued lecturing when it became the University of New England.
Turner also brought his love for hockey with him to Armidale. He joined the Ex-Services Checkmates Hockey Club and played and coached there.
When Masters Hockey was introduced in 1980, Turner signed up and played for NSW and Australia in the over 55s, 60s, 65s and 70s at various tournaments.
He retired from hockey when he was 84.
His service to sport has earned him a life membership to the Glebe Hockey Club in 2013, and one to the Ex-Services Checkmates Hockey Club, a Sporting Legend title from the Northern Inland Academy of Sport and, in 2003, a Sydney University Blue.