George Yardley

Lore & Background

Yardley was born in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Newport Harbor High School and later Stanford University, where he played basketball as a walk-on and earned a degree in civil engineering. He was a Helms Foundation second-team All-American in 1950. After college, he played AAU basketball and served in the U.S. Navy. He was drafted by the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons in 1950 and played for the Pistons (later Detroit) and Syracuse Nationals. He led the NBA in scoring in 1957-58 and was a six-time All-Star. He retired after the 1959-60 season.

In Their Own Story

The arena was half-empty, the kind of midweek ABA game where the crowd was more interested in the concession stand than the tip-off. Yardley stood at the top of the key, ball in his hands, watching the defense set. He didn't call a play. He didn't need to. He gave the ball a single, lazy dribble to his right, and in the half-second the big man's eyes followed it, Yardley whipped a no-look pass over his own shoulder, backhand, into the left corner where a teammate had slipped free. Swish. The crowd barely stirred. But the man in the front row, a steelworker from Gary with a black-and-gold scarf, stood up and howled like he'd just seen a miracle. Because to him, that pass was the whole game. That was the Pacers. That was Yardley.

Reader's Guide

George Yardley was a forward for the Fort Wayne/Detroit Pistons and Syracuse Nationals in the NBA. He never played for the Indiana Pacers or in the ABA. He played college basketball at Stanford University, not La Salle University. He was drafted by the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons in 1950, not by the ABA Pacers in 1967.

Did You Know?

• Yardley was the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in a season.
• He earned the nickname 'Yardbird' from his fraternity brothers at Stanford.
• Yardley was also an All-American volleyball player and a five-time tennis champion in his age bracket.
• He turned down professional offers to maintain amateur status for the 1952 Olympics, but a broken wrist ended that possibility.