Catching Up With: George Yardley

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - George Yardley the engineer vowed to never retire.

So far he’s on a good pace.

The Stanford-educated 6-foot-5 NBA forward, who once left professional

basketball to pursue business interests and make a better living for his

family, Yardley has seen life’s glamorous side, as well as its school of

hard knocks and most difficult times.

Since last year, Yardley, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer from

Newport Harbor High (circa 1946), has defeated prostate cancer, and,

today, acts as if nobody was guarding him in the lane.

Nicknamed “the Bird” in his playing career, mostly with the Pistons,

Fort Wayne, Ind., and Detroit, Yardley is back on the courts once a week

at Palisades Tennis Club and playing golf regularly, while working about

“50 hours a week.”

A doting grandfather, Yardley, who lost his longtime wife, Diana, in

January 1999, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the spring of 2000.

But after surgery and 30 days of radiation, Yardley was on his way to

recovery.

“My life is no different (than prior to surgery),” said Yardley, who

lends his name to various Newport Harbor athletic fund-raisers, such as

this summer’s boys basketball tournament and a golf tournament in June.

Yardley, who also sends out 10 signed basketballs to charity each

month, has owned and operated the George Yardley Co. in Fountain Valley

for several years. Three of his four children, Robert, Marilyn and Anne,

as well as son-in-law Tim Nagle, work for him. Yardley’s other son,

Richard, who used to work for him, “went off on his own” earlier this

year.

“I like what I do,” said Yardley, who earned a master’s degree at

Stanford, and, later, went out to prove he could make more money off the

basketball court than on it.

“I’m very fortunate to be able to go into something. I might not have

as much money as the guys nowadays (in the NBA), but most players after

they retire have nothing to capture their interest.”

Yardley always worked summer jobs during his seven-year NBA career,

which included the 1957-58 campaign, when he became the first NBA player

to score 2,000 points in a season, finishing with 2,001.

One week after Yardley lost his wife, his daughter, Anne, and her two

boys, Kyle, 12, and Cody, 8, moved in with their father after a divorce.

“It’s been a godsend,” Yardley said of living with his daughter and

grandsons. “Kyle was just in a basketball tournament at the (Harbor Area)

Boys Club and was Player of the Tournament, so it’s been kind fun to

watch that. He’s doing very well. They won the championship the other

night ... he’s a big boy (5-foot-7) for his age. He’s very coordinated

and I’m very proud of him.”

Yardley still belongs to Big Canyon Country Club, where he and his

wife would golf on Sundays. These days, Yardley can be spotted mostly at

Talega Golf Club in San Clemente.

Nothing, of course, will ever fill the void left by Diana.

“We had 45 years without a fight,” he said. “We had a great

relationship. I could not have been better. We both avoided conflict like

the plague, so (the relationship) was good.”

Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996, Yardley averaged

27.8 points per game, a staggering figure at the time, for the 1957-58

Detroit Pistons.

Yardley, who grew up in the “back alleys of Balboa Island,” patterned

his game after former USC and Santa Ana Army Base standout Jack Hupp.

After the Pistons drafted Yardley No. 1 in 1950, he didn’t join them

until three years later. The NBA, at that time, was something less than

the multimillion-dollar entity of today, so Yardley decided to play for

the San Francisco Stewart Chevrolets, who won a national AAU

championship.

Yardley, who finally signed a contract with the Pistons for $9,500

(more than double the NBA average), also played for Syracuse and was a

six-time NBA All-Star. In his career, he averaged 19.2 ppg.