George Yardley

Born: November 3, 1928
Died: August 12, 2004

Year by Year

1928

George Harry Yardley III is born in Hollywood, California on November 3, 1928, the son of George Harry Yardley II and Dorothy Schoyer Yardley. He is delivered at Hollywood Hospital by Dr. Deering (the same doctor who delivered his wife, Diana, 2 years later). The family lives in La Cañada.

1931

George’s only sibling, Robert Palmer Yardley, is born on December 3, 1931.

1932

The Yardley family moves to 515 N. Cliffwood in Brentwood. George attends Brentwood Elementary School and Emerson Junior High School.

1942

The Yardleys move to Balboa Island. George attends Newport Harbor High School.

1946

George graduates from Newport Harbor High School. He shows some promise, but is only a third team All-CIF basketball player.

1950

George graduates from Stanford with a degree in engineering. He sets the Pacific Coast Conference scoring record, eclipsing the record set by Hank Luisetti 12 years earlier. Twenty minutes later, USC’s Bill Sharman breaks George’s record. George is voted 2nd team college All American by the Helms Foundation.

George plays for Stewart Chevrolets in the AAU tournament in Denver, Colorado. At the time, the AAU tournament was far more prestigious than the NCAA tournament, on par with the NBA Championship. Stewart Chevrolets wins the tournament, defeating Bob Kurland’s Phillips 66 team in the semifinals and Peoria Caterpillar in the finals. George is voted AAU All American (as he is each of the next two years).

1951

George enlists in the Navy as a pilot. After enlisting, he is measured: George is too tall to be a pilot. He serves 24 months in the service at the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. During George’s tour of duty, Los Alamitos wins the All Services basketball championship. (Side note: George’s mother complains when George is spending all of his time in the gym after being trained as an engineer. As a result, the Captain in charge of the base assigns George to the stick man position on a surveying team in the middle of the desert. The family complains no more, and George returns to the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station).

1952

George is voted All American by the United States Volleyball Association (to go along with his All American status in basketball). Hank Luisetti, George’s coach, calls George, “The greatest basketball player in the world.” George breaks his hand prior to the Olympics, thus is unable to compete in the 1952 Olympic Games.

1953

George and an American team (including brother Bobby) tour South America, meeting Juan and Eva Peron (among others). George returns early from the tour to get married. George marries the former Diana Gibson on August 29, 1953.

1953-1960

George plays 7 seasons in the National Basketball Association, making the All Star team every year except his rookie year.

During his career, George is the only player to be a teammate of all three of the “first black” players in the NBA:

1953-1954

The Zollner Pistons, playing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, under general manager Carl Bennett and owner Fred Zollner, sign George Yardley. Player Alex Hannum helps George with his contract. George represents himself for the rest of his career (and maintains his distaste for agents for the rest of his life).

1954-1955

The Pistons advance to the NBA finals, playing the 7th game in a blizzard in Syracuse, New York. They lose the 7th game by 1 point. The birth of George’s first daughter, Marilyn, occurs in Orange, California.

1956

The Pistons again advance to the NBA finals, but fall to the Philadelphia Warriors. The birth of George’s twin sons, Robert and Richard, occurs on December 4, 1956, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1957

The Pistons lose in the divisional finals to the St. Louis Hawks.

1957-1958

The Pistons move from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan. George sets the NBA single-season scoring record, eclipsing George Mikan’s record. Yardley is the first man to score 2000 points in a season, scoring 2001 points in 72 games for an average of 27.8 points per game.

1958-1959

George breaks his hand and is traded from the Detroit Pistons to the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers), just ½ season after breaking the single-season scoring record. They lose to the Bill Russell/Bob Cousy/Bill Sharman Celtics in the 7th game in the divisional finals. The Celtics sweep the Lakers 4-0 in the finals.

1959-1960

George’s last season in the NBA with the Syracuse Nationals. He retires as an All Star, averaging over 20 points a game in his final season. He does this in order to allow his daughter, Marilyn, to enter kindergarten in California.

Added note: Syracuse/Philadelphia retains George’s rights. The Lakers try to sign George repeatedly, but Syracuse/Philadelphia insists on the rights to Jerry West or Elgin Baylor in return. No deal is ever consummated.

1960

George starts the George Yardley Company, a manufacturer’s representative for engineered products, approximately 3 weeks before playing in his last NBA All-Star game. While the name wasn’t too creative, the company is now in its 51st year in Santa Ana, California. Background information: during the offseason, George had worked for Robertshaw Fulton and for Fluor Corporation. George patents a seal for the liquid oxygen fuel tank on the Atlas-Titan rocket that allows the United States to continue in the space race with the USSR.

1961

The birth of George’s daughter, Anne, occurs in Orange, California.

1961-1962

George plays home games only for the Los Angeles Jets of the American Basketball League under Coach Bill Sharman. Teammates included Bill Spivey of the scandal-ridden Kentucky team. The league doesn’t last (the Jets franchise folds in January of 1962).

1968

George designs and has built a home in Newport Beach, California. He moves from the Santa Ana home built by his father to the new home in Newport Beach.

1973

George Yardley and Ron Livingston win the National Indoor Men’s 35 Doubles Championship in Salt Lake City, Utah (Side note: Ronnie was national Boy’s 15 and Under champion, NCAA Doubles champion at UCLA, and Captain of John Wooden’s UCLA basketball team).

1974

George Yardley and Hugh Stewart win the National Indoor Men’s 45 Doubles title in Salt Lake City, Utah (Side note: Hugh was the CIF Player of the Year in Basketball in George’s senior year in high school).

1975

George Yardley and Hugh Stewart win the National Hard Court Men’s 45 Doubles title in La Jolla, California.

1976

George Yardley and Julie Hayward win the National Hard Court Mixed 45 Doubles title in La Jolla, California.

1980

George is selected as the Orange County Sports Celebrity of the Year for 1979.

1981

George Yardley is enshrined in the inaugural class for the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame.

1992

George Yardley is awarded The Red Coat as the Mad Anthonys’ “Hoosier Celebrity of the Year”.

1996

George is inducted as a player in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1997

George is inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in San Francisco, California.

2001

George is inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in Detroit, MI.

2003

April 4th, 2003 - George is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

2004

April 29th, 2004 - George Yardley hosts a fundraiser that raises over $110,000 for the ALSA (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association).

August 12, 2004

August 12, 2004 - George Yardley dies of ALS in his Newport Beach home (where he has lived for over 36 years).