Bud knows

DON CANTRELL

Ample attention has been turning toward George “Bud” Barnett, one of

Newport Harbor High’s most versatile athletes from 1937-41, and his longtime partner, the former Connie Davis, as their 60th wedding

anniversary arrives on Sept. 26.

Old sports teammates of Barnett, family and friends of both, are

expected to be conveying words of good cheer to the couple, now

residents of nearby Prescott, Ariz.

His military comrades still remember his heroics during World War

II and the Korean War. As a daring Marine bomber pilot during WWII,

Barnett earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses and nine Air

Medals. He was also honored as a helicopter pilot during the Korean

War for rescuing numerous missions from disaster.

The couple had lived in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa for decades

before choosing a quiet community in central Arizona.

One of Barnett’s biggest prep achievements during Newport days was

winning the No. 1 CIF badminton title.

He also led Newport to its first Bee basketball title in 1940,

then paced the ’41 varsity to the school’s first championship. That

team finished with a 21-2 record.

Barnett also possessed great talent in track and field, but told

the coach he declined to run hurdles. He told another coach he

favored tennis over baseball.

He earned numerous honors in four years of tennis and directed a

wide margin of credit to the tennis court facilities and training at

Newport Beach Elementary.

Looking back, he still treasures the warmth and kindness of

drug-store owner Alvin Pinkley, who later became the mayor of Costa

Mesa and served three terms.

“Mr. Pinkley gave our ’41 basketball team a standing deal,”

Barnett said. “When we won, we got a free malt.”

Considering the 21-2 season, Barnett figured he must have served

up 240 free malts.

That had to be the ice cream dream season.

Another talent found Barnett contributing a fine gift to the

school when he served as the yearbook photographer his final year.

He said there was only one setback.

“Two of the faculty members refused to pose,” he said. “They

preferred that their graduation pictures be published [instead].”

Reflecting back on the late Mayor Pinkley, it harks to mind an

occasion when the Costa Mesa Merchants community baseball team, one

supported by Pinkley, was confronting a superb team from Los Angeles.

Before going upstairs to handle the game microphone, Pinkley chose

to chat with the visiting manager, who quickly told Pinkley how great

his team was and would probably teach the young 6-foot-4 Mesa

left-hander a few lessons on the mound.

Pinkley smiled, then departed for the announcer’s table up above.

As the game progressed, the young pitcher named Frank “Lassie”

Hamilton had struck most of the visitors out by the end of the

seventh inning.

Pinkley chose to stroll down to see the visiting manager and said,

“You want I should get you a tennis racquet?”

Hamilton had previously pitched Newport High to the league

championship and paced the Tars to the CIF playoffs for two

encounters.

Pinkley was always a fan and supporter of the area’s four high

schools and Orange Coast College.

Judd Sutherland, a Pilot Sports Hall of Famer via his years as a

rugged tackle for the Harbor High football team 1931-34, also

admitted once to Newport coach Les Miller that he had to put the

clamps on his tempermental side, especially in golf, years later.

“When he’d make a bad shot, he’d get mad,” Miller once said. “Once

he threw his club off to a distance and almost hit another party.”

He finally chose not to toss his clubs anymore and he replaced

swearing with two words he made up: tippy horn.

“When that happened,” Miller said. “The guys around him would

start laughing.”