"Girls don't play sports."
Growing up in rural Kentucky, Peggy Turner always wanted to play sports. In grade school, she ran across the street to watch the high school football team practice on crisp fields during fall evenings. She thought about how badly she wanted to be out there. It was the 1960s, and there were no opportunities for girls to play sports. Title IX wouldn't pass until 1972.
That Christmas, Santa Claus brought her a gift: a football uniform. "I couldn't even go in public with it," Turner said. "It was unheard of. But my parents were supportive of me being an active child. But they also knew it wasn't going anywhere, and they respected that." Two years later, when she was 10, Santa delivered another gift: a basketball.
Turner brought her present to school and started bouncing it around at recess. While playing with friends, Turner sees her teacher walking toward her. "I'll never forget. It's the most shame I have ever experienced because I was a rule follower," Turner said. "I got called to the principal's office. The teacher took me and the ball and the other two kids that were playing." The principal asked the students who brought the basketball to school. Turner eagerly replied, "It's mine!" The principal called her mother and said, "Girls don't play sports. Girls don't play basketball. Do not bring the basketball back to school."
By her sophomore year in high school, after Title IX passed, Turner got her chance to play basketball through graduation. And a few years later, after pivoting from ball while in junior college, she walked on the track and field team at Murray State University, where she became the first person in her family to attend and graduate college. "Sports saved my life," Turner said. "Title IX changed the trajectory of my life. Sports gave me everything. I wouldn't be here today without sports."
Shortly after graduating, Turner took a job in Texas managing the city of Pasadena's adaptive sports program. She had never worked with athletes with physical and cognitive disabilities, but she was dedicated to creating opportunities for them. She began advocating for support of wheelchair basketball competitions. For Turner, her work as an advocate for inclusion in her community started years before ADA became law and long before terms like "adapted" were common practice. (The Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] was signed into law on July 26, 1990.)
Twenty years after her first job in Pasadena, Turner went on to work with the city of Houston to develop the first adapted sports and recreation facility and some of the first wheelchair sports initiatives in the area. Then, Turner was offered her "dream job" as the Director of Recreation, Athletics and Injured Military Programs at the Lakeshore Foundation, a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site in Alabama. In 2017, Turner returned to Houston to become the Athletics Community Liaison & Adapted Sports Coordinator at TIRR Memorial Hospital -- one of the nation's leading rehabilitation and research hospitals.
Turner talked to ESPN about her 41-year career in adaptive sports, how she advocates for athletes and why sports continue to impact her life.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
On the passing of Title IX in 1972 and finally being able to play sports
I felt like growing up, so many things came at me as, "You can't do this because you're a girl." And so, by the time Title IX passed, I was going into my sophomore year, and it felt like, at that point, me and the girls just wanted to play sports. And I knew I already loved it, but now I got to be on the team and play. And I was the smallest one on the team and really learning how to play and be the best I could be. It opened this whole new world. My grades went up in school for the last three years of high school.
I had no direction on going to college, but I tried out for basketball in junior college, and then I didn't make it, so I dropped out. But then, while I was working at a fast-food restaurant, someone said, "If you want to be a runner, the coach at Murray State will make you a runner." I drove an hour and a half to Murray State and found the coach. All it took was someone believing in me and saying, "You can do this." The moment I heard those words, I just cut loose.
On starting her career in adaptive sports
In 1988, Pasadena hosted the First Texas International Shootout. Prior to that, I had seen what wheelchair basketball tournaments look liked while being a referee at the international tournament in Toronto. And I knew that we could do it better. And this was before ADA, before accessible transportation. I knew there would be challenges, but we could do it.
We had yellow school buses that I convinced the company to take the seats out and build wooden ramps. We had 16 teams from four countries. Everyone stayed for two weeks. The first year, everyone stayed in hotels that didn't have accessible rooms because it was before hotels needed to have that. It wasn't easy, but we made it work. And by the next year, we had hotels bidding for us to host athletes because it had been such an economic success in town. It made me want to keep going. Just seeing the impact.
On transitioning from her "dream job" at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic site to returning to Houston
After starting the program in the City of Houston, I received the opportunity to work in Alabama at the Lakeshore Foundation. It was the pinnacle of my career. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training sites, sports, recreation, fitness, everything daily. I advanced to a high title and got to be a part of a lot of cool stuff. I learned a lot, and it felt like going back to school for eight years. I always knew that maybe I'd return to Houston after I was ready to volunteer for adapted sports events and do what I could. I was still very connected, and I received a call about a new role in Houston and if I knew anyone who would be a good candidate. I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, I would come home and do that now." Over the course of two weeks, I thought about whether I should go back to Houston, change course, and take the job.
During a call with one of my friends, she asked me, "If you stay at Lakeshore, who will suffer the most? And if you come home to Houston, who will suffer the most?" And I was in the parking lot on a lunch break, and I just started to cry. I knew I was coming home. I knew that I was at the pinnacle of my career, but I was one of many. And back home, they needed me. I needed to go home and make a difference.
On attending her first Paralympic Games in 1992 and being at the last eight Summer Games
My first Paralympics, we had approximately 500 athletes. There wasn't a specific coach, assistant coach, team manager or physician for each sport. It was for the entire delegation. We needed personal care attendants for athletes, but when we showed up, the number of athletes who needed care was greater than expected. We were going to take one PCA for every three athletes who needed personal care. We got over there, and nine athletes needed care. So, I started to help wherever I could so that athletes could go and perform. I didn't sleep much, but I was so excited to be there.
Several of my athletes that I worked with were shooters, and so when I returned home, the coach called me and said, "We need your help. We're going to world championships, and we could use your help with the disabled shooting team." For the next three years, I was a personal care attendant, assistant coach, and head coach of the U.S. disabled shooting team at the world championships.
And every year after my first, for the Paralympics, I made sure I was there. Whether I had to pay my way, get media credentials, and be a volunteer photographer -- which I did for the past six games -- I made sure I was there. Doing whatever I could to help.
On the progress made in adaptive sports
I'm hopeful with where we're at and where we're going just seeing the continued education and awareness and recognition of adaptive sports and Paralympic sports and what people are capable of when given an opportunity to truly look at equity for all humanity.