Sixteen high school basketball teams converge on the gym at Newport Harbor High School on Thursday, July 16, for the annual George Yardley Tournament, with the host Sailors facing perennial powerhouse Mater Dei at 8:05 p.m. in the opening round.
The tournament, which runs through Sunday, July 19, is named for the only homegrown Orange County player enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. George Yardley grew up on Balboa Island, graduated from Newport Harbor High in 1946, and went on to become the first player in NBA history to score 2,000 points in a single season.
His daughter, Anne Yardley, still lives in the neighborhood. She told OC Register columnist Richard Dunn that reminders of her father surface constantly.
"Every day something happens," Anne Yardley said. "The other day I'm walking my dog in the neighborhood – and this is somewhere I've lived for (13) years now – and I run into my neighbor Chris and he asks, 'Does your last name have anything to do with the court at Newport Harbor High?' I said yes, and my neighbor had no idea he was my father."
The court inside the gym bears Yardley's name. During the 1957-58 season with the Detroit Pistons, he averaged 27.8 points per game and finished with 2,001 total points, breaking the record of 1,932 held by George Mikan, according to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was selected to six consecutive NBA All-Star Games from 1955 to 1960.
Off the court, Yardley was equally remarkable. A Stanford All-American in basketball and volleyball who earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering, he worked on classified Cold War projects during NBA offseasons, including development of the Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles and helium pressure-control devices for the X-15 rocket aircraft. He invented a liquid-oxygen seal that helped make the Titan operative.
Yardley retired from the NBA at 31 to focus on his family and engineering business. He died of ALS on August 12, 2004, at his Newport Beach home at age 75.
Coaching the Sailors into their opening-round matchup is Bob Torribio, a Newport Harbor alum (class of 1995) entering his 24th season coaching at the school and his 12th as varsity head coach. Under Torribio, the Sailors have won four Sunset League championships and reached the playoffs nine times, according to the Newport Harbor basketball program's website.
The tournament brings together many of Orange County's top programs in the gym where Yardley once played. Games run Thursday through Sunday at Newport Harbor High School, 600 Irvine Ave.
