Tennis, anyone?

Don Cantrell

The long flow of yarns on the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famers has

been entertaining to readers this past year, but there is still room to

touch upon past interest and humor.

Many of the top names drew high accolades, especially in earlier years,

for their fabulous talents in one sport. Fans and writers had a habit of

forgetting other sparkling talents.

Tennis is a big sport now on a local and national level, as readers may

note from sports sections. Not so in the old days.

Five early Pilot Hall of Famers were outstanding tennis players in their

prime, such as Craig Phoenix, Class of ‘37; George Barnett, Class of ‘41;

Bud Attridge, Class of ‘44; George Yardley, Class of ’46 and Bob Yardley,

Class of ’49.

They are basically remembered for their skills in basketball.

National and international tennis got fair play in the early days, but it

wasn’t constant. Little attention was paid to college and high school

players and most women were ignored, until Billie Jean King arose in the

60s to win an intense match over male Bobby Riggs.

Phoenix, who played football and basketball, was a sterling ace in Orange

League tennis and some from the 30s recall that only one other player

could beat Phoenix.

Barnett was outstanding in basketball, track and field, CIF badminton and

tennis. He helped bring championships to Harbor High in track, tennis,

basketball and badminton.

Attridge helped produce championships in basketball and tennis and guided

a young adult team to an astonishing victory over the visiting Harlem

Globetrotters.

The Yardley brothers rarely drew much press out of the print media for

their shining accomplishments in tennis during and after high school.

Upon reflecting back recently, George claimed “Brother Bob was a great

tennis player in high school” Bob lettered all four years.

Similar praise once came from Bob to one writer saluting brother George.

He claimed George “in those days” could beat people at a high level. Some

recall George’s stunning play at the Balboa Bay Club.

George once won five national championships in tennis and did note, upon

questioning, that he never lost to the pro Pancho Gonzalez, which is

remarkable.

One of the hilarious events on the local scene in 1951 was when Mel

Smalley, the ’49 Harbor High halfback whiz and defensive back for the

champ ’51 OCC grid team, invited a Palm Springs recruit to sneak into a

side door of the Lido Theater one evening.

The desert recruit was shaky about trying to ease through without buying

a ticket, but Smalley encouraged him to knock and slide right through.

Unfortunately, the theater guard opened the door and then led the pair to

the office of owner Mason Siler, who always fared well with the local

students. Hence, he knew most of them.

Seeing Smalley, however, was a slight shock and Siler said, “You didn’t

have to do that, Mel. If you had no money, I would have let you in for

free.”

“I know that, Mason,” Smalley exclaimed. “But it wouldn’t have been fun

then.”

Many local students from the mid-40s remember an irritating period one

spring break in Balboa when a few groups of out-of-towners chose to bully

the locals around.

Some local athletes chose to do something about it and it brought fun and

success.

Ralph Freitag, the Harbor High fullback who once drew the attention of

the Chicago Bears, stuffed his car with about four or five pals and drove

them around the Balboa Fun Zone area. One passenger included the late Don

Vaughn, a 6-foot-7 grid center, in the back.

After the first group of out-of-towners appeared in Freitag’s window to

ask a few imposing questions, he opened the car door to allow Vaughn and

others to rise and introduce themselves.

Freitag laughed to recall the episode. He said, “When they saw Vaughn

stepping out, they backed off and tried to smooth things over. One

invited us to a nice party with their friends. One wanted to shake hands

and be friends.”

It is fair to say the locals had little trouble with the “foreigners”

after that confrontation.