NBA and Newport Harbor star Yardley dies

Roger Carlson

George Harry Yardley III, a Newport Harbor High grad who went on to

become an NBA Hall of Fame star, died Thursday morning at his Newport

Beach home with all of his family members at his bedside. He would

have been 76 in early November.

The gregarious Yardley, who stood 6 feet 5 and never did anything

without flair, succumbed to a battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“Up to just a couple of nights ago, he was having a good time,”

said his daughter, Anne Yardley. “But his legs went out on him on

Tuesday, and he died this morning. It’s a blessing.”

Private burial services will be held at noon Thursday at the

Pacific View Mortuary and Cemetery, where he will join his wife,

Diana, who passed away in 1999. Memorial services will follow, but

family members have requested that they be contacted for further

details.

Yardley was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis early in

2003, and he spent the balance of his life fighting the fatal

disease, named after the immortal New York Yankee, with determination

in mind and spirit.

His final contribution was accomplished by raising and donating

more than $100,000 to the ALS Assn. at the Ludwig Institute at UC San

Diego and the Orange County Chapter of the ALS Assn.

“Even though we all knew it was coming, it’s still a shock,” said

John Hall of San Clemente, a retired Los Angeles Times and Orange

County Register sports writer. “He was such a vibrant human being

with all of his athletic skills, as well as a good friend and a good

person.”

Yardley’s career in the NBA lasted just seven years, and he was

named an All-Star six times as he dominated on and off the floor with

his spectacular play and constant up-beat nature.

He left the game at the young age of 31 for two reasons.

First, he wanted to come home. He promised his wife that they

would settle in California once the children reached school age.

Second, even though an All-Star, he was convinced he could make a

better living for his family as a businessman, thanks to an

engineering education at Stanford, where he was a walk-on basketball

player for the Indians aside from his studies.

Among his records as a three-time All-American was a single-season

scoring record for the Stanford Indians, and he was the first to ever

score as many as 2,000 points in a single season in the NBA, breaking

the mark of the fabled George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers.

His pro career was with the Fort Wayne and Detroit Pistons, as

well as the Syracuse Nationals, where he walked away from the game

having averaged 20.2 points per game in his final season.

The pro game’s original “Bird,” his lifetime pro marks were 19.2

points and 8.9 rebounds a game.

Before his run in the NBA, he starred for the Stewart Chevrolet

entry on the AAU level, where his coach, Hank Luisetti, labeled him

as “The greatest basketball player in the game.”

Despite all of his success in the NBA and his eventual induction

into the Hall of Fame, he was always the same happy kid who never

backed away from a challenge, doted endlessly on his family, and,

seemingly, always succeeded athletically, especially on the tennis

courts and golf courses.

His tennis ability was always underplayed.

One of the key figures in Yardley’s sports-related activities over

the past 25 years was Linda Isle’s Paul Salata, who was instrumental

in the promotion of his ascent to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1996.

“I think basketball might have been his least impressive sport,”

Salata said. “He was really something.”

Former Costa Mesa Herald sports editor and Daily Pilot columnist

Don Cantrell recalled that at the Balboa Bay Club in exhibition play,

Yardley met and defeated world-renowned tennis star Pancho Gonzalez

on five occasions.

Before his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame, Yardley was

the centerpiece of a dedication ceremony at Newport Harbor High, and

he went out of his way to insist the award from his high school meant

more to him than his anticipated induction on the national stage.

He was also honored with induction into the Bay Area and Michigan

sports hall of fames, relative to endeavors at Stanford and with the

Stewart Chevrolet AAU basketball teams, as well as with the Detroit

Pistons.

“Harbor High meant an awful lot to him,” said Cantrell, who also

recalled his infectious smile.

“He got that from his mother, Dorothy,” Cantrell said. “She was

one of the finest ladies I’ve ever known. She could charm anyone.”

Yardley’s demeanor and commentary were often outrageous by today’s

standards, but his remarks were always with a light heart and never

mean-spirited.

“Sometimes he had a cranky and crotchety demeanor,” Salata said,

“but it was all fake. He was a real pussycat.”

He was often in the middle of local charities and was by any

standard considered a community treasure.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Newport Beach businessman Buck

Johns said. “George was a true renaissance man. It’s kind of hard to

get your arms around a guy like George. Everything he touched was

with an enthusiasm that is so rare today. What a dimension he added

to the community.

“He told me not to shed a tear for him, that he was the luckiest

man in town. But, it was we who were the luckiest town to have a guy

like that.”

In the business world, he started the George Yardley Co., a

manufacturer’s representative for engineered products in 1960. During

the basketball off-season, he worked for Robertshaw Fulton and the

Fluor Corp.

Among his accomplishments: patenting a seal for the liquid oxygen

fuel tank on the Atlas-Titan rocket that allowed the United States to

keep pace with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

An original selection into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame,

he was never at a loss for words, even when enduring the harshest of

conditions as the disease progressed.

In recent months, when a Daily Pilot reporter asked his daughter,

Anne, if she could respond with a comment from him, he murmured with

a wink of an eye and a wry smile:

“Tell him to read the article in the Register. He’ll love that!”

Roy Orgill, a close family friend and a business partner with

Yardley’s son Rob, had fond memories of the help he received from

George Yardley as he played basketball at Estancia High School and

Orange Coast College.

“He was an extraordinary man, and he treated me like a son,”

Orgill said. “He opened up so many opportunities for me, and he

leaves a huge legacy.”

The son of the late George, Jr. and Dorothy, George Yardley’s

surviving children include Marilyn, Robert, Richard and Anne.

There are 14 grandchildren.

He is also survived by his younger brother, Robert, of Rancho

Santa Fe.

* ROGER CARLSON is the former Daily Pilot Sports Editor.