George Yardley

It would be easy to explain what a treasured son the Newport-Mesa community lost when George Yardley passed away this month by listing just his athletic accomplishments. He was a three-time All-American at Stanford, where he set the school's single-season scoring record. He was the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in a season. During his seven-year career, he was named an All-Star six times and averaged 19.2 points and 8.9 rebounds a game. He eventually was voted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.

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)

According to NBA lore from the 1950s, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post once described George Yardley as having to overcome the "horrible back alleys of Balboa Island" while growing up. Yardley sure had them fooled, just like the defenders who would try to guard his unstoppable jump shot. Later in his seven-year Hall of Fame NBA career, big headlines reported Yardley as "Basketball's Unhappy Gunner." He missed his family and could make more money as an engineer.

Bryce Alderton George Yardley dazzled fans with his graceful style on the basketball court. On Thursday, friends, family and admirers arrived at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa to pay final respects to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, Newport Harbor High graduate and community icon. Bursts of laughter rippled among nearly 800 well-wishers as 12 speakers, including fellow NBA Hall of Famers Bill Sharman and Dolph Schayes, remembered the revered Yardley, who died Aug. 12 after succumbing to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at age 75. The 1 1/2 -hour service began and ended with a slideshow of photos spanning Yardley's life shown on video monitors throughout the church.

On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig broke a nation's heart when he proclaimed before a packed Yankee Stadium crowd, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth ..." A giant on the diamond with 2,130 straight games played and a lifetime batting average of .340, twice the American League's MVP with the powerful New York Yankees, he would be gone in less than two years, at the age of 37, as a result of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS, a subject so rare it's known simply as Lou Gehrig's Disease after it struck down "The Pride of the Yankees."

Note to readers: Below is a letter in our achieves from the late George Yardley, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer from Newport Beach who died Thursday of ALS. It was dated Jan. 2, 1996. Daily Pilot Sports Section: My mom and dad spoiled me from birth and nobody could spoil a child like Dorothy and George. Then Diana topped their effort spoiling me for 43 years of marriage. The four children have helped immeasurably with their constant love and affection.

The 2005 George Yardley Summer Cage Classic hosted by Newport Harbor High kicks off today at 1:30 p.m. in the Sailors' gym. The tournament features 24 high school boys basketball teams, including Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar and Estancia. CdM will play El Toro, the 2004 tournament champion, at 4:30 p.m. and Newport Harbor will play Highland High from Arizona at 7:30 p.m. Estancia's first round game is tomorrow against Elsinore at 2 p.m. at Katella High.

I ran into George Yardley at the doctor's office, both of us waiting for our regular checkup, and it reminded me that one part of our city has made a significant contribution to professional sports. Not many places the size of Balboa Island can boast of having had two nationally known professional athletes. Oh, professional athletes might congregate in some desirable place they can now afford. The notorious Dennis Rodman has a home on the peninsula, and a number of other former professionals live in the area, but the idea of having two athletes who were good enough to become professionals actually come from a place as small as Balboa Island is rather amazing.

ROGER CARLSON George Yardley was always known as a "gamer," and Thursday's night's tribute to George Yardley at the Big Canyon Country Club proved the notion again as he went the distance and might have been ready for overtime, if necessary, in his continuing battle with what is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The man who broke the 2,000-point barrier in one season in the National Basketball Association and a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Newport Harbor High two-sport star Cody Caldwell has been dismissed from the boys’ basketball team and his status with the boys’ volleyball team remains in doubt, Sailors’ basketball coach Larry Hirst said Friday. Hirst said Caldwell, who last played in a Jan. 29 Sunset League home win over Fountain Valley, was dismissed for violating team rules. Hirst said he could not be more specific, citing restrictions in the education code about revealing such matters. It is unclear when Caldwell’s status for the upcoming volleyball season will be determined.

On the floor, behind the rest of his Newport Harbor High teammates, Cody Caldwell watches the coach and TV. Dan Glenn instructs. The TV is the visual lesson for Thursday. Glenn has been the head coach of the Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball program since 1987. Breaking down teams, footage, players, he excels at these coaching rituals. Glenn has a good read on Caldwell, almost as well as his parents. He befriended the Caldwells before coaching Cody. Whatever Glenn says about the 6-foot-5, 175-pounder, you can take his words for it. “Cody is not all connected yet,” Glenn said.

PAC-10 HONORS YARDLEY Newport Harbor High product George Yardley has been chosen by Stanford University to be inducted into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor. Yardley, a former Stanford All-American, who went on to have an illustrious NBA career and earn induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, is one of 10 honorees — one from each conference school — who will be recognized during a ceremony at the Hall of Honor Banquet luncheon Tuesday at the Los Angeles Marriott.

NEWPORT BEACH ? A 16-year-old wearing Grandpa's clothes is rare. The garb isn't just any Grandpa's, though. It belonged to George Yardley, a Hall of Fame basketball player and Kyle Caldwell's grandfather. Caldwell sports Grandpa's colorful shirts and worn-out baggy pants at Newport Harbor High. His basketball teammates don't mock him for it. "His grandpa was like the same size as him and all of his clothes fit him," said Weston Dunlap of Caldwell, a 6-foot-8, 220-pounder, whose Grandpa stood three inches shorter.

I ran into George Yardley at the doctor's office, both of us waiting for our regular checkup, and it reminded me that one part of our city has made a significant contribution to professional sports. Not many places the size of Balboa Island can boast of having had two nationally known professional athletes. Oh, professional athletes might congregate in some desirable place they can now afford. The notorious Dennis Rodman has a home on the peninsula, and a number of other former professionals live in the area, but the idea of having two athletes who were good enough to become professionals actually come from a place as small as Balboa Island is rather amazing.

Richard Dunn FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The balance of power in the Back Bay has always shifted like a small tremor, similar to the storied boys basketball rivalry between Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar. While Saturday morning's setting didn't include bands and streamers and a packed gymnasium, it featured the usual tug-of-war, albeit summer, between Coach Larry Hirst's Sailors and Coach Ryan Curry's Sea Kings in...

The 2005 George Yardley Summer Cage Classic hosted by Newport Harbor High kicks off today at 1:30 p.m. in the Sailors' gym. The tournament features 24 high school boys basketball teams, including Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar and Estancia. CdM will play El Toro, the 2004 tournament champion, at 4:30 p.m. and Newport Harbor will play Highland High from Arizona at 7:30 p.m. Estancia's first round game is tomorrow against Elsinore at 2 p.m. at Katella High.

The Orange County Chapter of the ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) Association will honor famed Newport Harbor High alum George Yardley when its second annual golf tournament convenes May 24 at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo. Yardley, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame who died of ALS in August 2004 at age 75 after diagnosis in early 2003, is regarded as arguably the greatest athlete to emerge from Newport Harbor, where he graduated from in 1946.

ROGER CARLSON It has been 75 years, virtually to the day, since a man named Sidney Davidson opened the front door in September of 1929 to let the Long Gray Line in at Newport Harbor High. So it seemed appropriate to take a look around and you might be surprised at what I found a few days ago. I've always been a big fan of Howard Carter, the fellow who nosed around the Pyramids and found the remains of Tutankhamun, the boy king. So you can imagine the intrigue as I sauntered through the various nooks and crannies of Ralph K. Reed Gymnasium on the Sailors' campus.