Catching Up With ... Jerry Tardie

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Walk into the men’s clubhouse at the Balboa Bay

Club early in the morning during the week and you’ll probably spot Jerry

Tardie hanging out with the self-described Six O’Clockers.

The in-house men’s club within the club includes several ardent sports

devotees, like community heavyweights Kirk Dawson, Don deVries, Mickey

Hartling, Zack Wright and Irrelevant Week founder Paul Salata.

But when Tardie arrives for his morning workout, he’s appropriately

referred to as “coach” by his fellow Six O’Clockers. Some in the

up-before-dawn men’s club claim to exercise on stationary bikes or lift

weights, but “most of them are eating doughnuts and watching the stock

market,” an insider once said.

Tardie, who has lived most of his life in Costa Mesa and the last 25

years on Balboa Peninsula, has always been the type of guy to stay in

touch.

For instance, the former Mater Dei High basketball coach and athletic

director sets up a reunion every year -- a weekend of golf at Indian

Wells Country Club, where he’s a member -- for his eighth-grade

championship basketball team of 1956 at St. Boniface of Anaheim.

“All five (starters) get together every September,” Tardie said.

“That’s 45 years ago we won (the Southern California Catholic school

title). It’s a great group of guys.”

Tardie, who also helped St. Boniface win 34 straight games at one

point, became Mater Dei’s first All-CIF Southern Section basketball

player in 1960.

Following an outstanding hoops career at Mater Dei, the 6-foot Tardie

played at Seattle University for four years, leading the Chieftains’

freshmen team in scoring in 1961, then serving as the varsity’s key sixth

man and part-time starter for three seasons.

While at Seattle U., Tardie played with, among others, 6-5 guard Eddie

Miles, who enjoyed a nine-year NBA career with the Detroit Pistons,

Baltimore Bullets and New York Knicks.

At the time, Seattle’s most famous basketball alumnus, Elgin Baylor,

would often show up on the weekends for pickup games during the NBA

offseason and provide free entertainment for the student body.

“(Baylor) was awesome,” Tardie said. “He was ahead of his time. He’d

come on weekends for pickup games and the gym would be half full (to

watch him).”

Like his former St. Boniface teammates, Tardie still gets together

with his Seattle U. teammates from the early 1960s.

“In fact, I’m up here in Seattle right now,” Tardie said recently

during a telephone interview. “I’m driving by that Safeco baseball

stadium right now, and that new football stadium looks unbelievable. I

went up here for a mini vacation for basketball.”

These days, golf is Tardie’s biggest habit. He drives out to the

desert from his Newport residence every weekend to play at Indian Wells

Country Club, where earlier this year he finally cracked the amateur

field in the Bob Hope Classic Pro-Am.

Tardie was on a waiting list to play in the event for several years,

but in 2001 his name came up. “Once you’ve been in the pro-am for five

straight years, you’re automatically in there,” he said. “That’s my goal

for the next (four) years.”

As a basketball coach, Tardie broke into the business as an assistant

at St. Martin’s College in Olympia, Wash., where he lasted two years.

Then came the opportunity of a lifetime: To return to his alma mater,

Mater Dei, in 1967. He was the youngest head basketball coach at the time

in Orange County at age 24.

Tardie, who coached the Monarchs for 13 years, was also Mater Dei’s

athletic director for 10 years.

“I was getting a little burned out after 13 years,” Tardie said. “I

started when I was 24 ... coaching all year, even in the summer. There

weren’t any gimmies. I wanted to take a year off.”

After the 1980-81 school year, Tardie’s final year as athletic

director, he entered the private business world and has been a successful

agent for State Farm Insurance ever since. Tardie was initially hired

into the business by Jack McInally, whose son, Pat, played football at

Harvard and several years in the NFL, mostly with Cincinnati, as a wide

receiver and kicker.

During lunchtime Monday through Friday these days, Tardie can usually

be spotted at one of his favorite eateries, like the Arches, or working

hard in his Costa Mesa office on Newport Boulevard. Local restaurateurs

know him by name.

“I love private business,” said Tardie, also a huge Boston Red Sox

fan. “It’s been great. I have no regrets (leaving Mater Dei) ... I’ve

been very lucky.”

Tardie has two grown children: A son who serves in the U.S. Navy

aboard the USS Cleveland and a daughter who teaches preschool in Mission

Viejo. He has two grandchildren. “God’s been good to me,” he said.