George attended Medford’s St. Mary’s Academy for his grade school and high school education. During the 1930s, St. Mary’s depended on volunteer coaching and the hand-me-down equipment donated by the Medford Junior and Senior High School coaches. To this day, George has a deep feeling of thankful appreciation for the favors received from Ray Henderson, Darwin Burgher, Russ Atcheson and Bill Bowerman, who through their efforts, maintained the athlet­ic program. A highlight of his early career was the day he was issued some worn-out pads once used by Bernie Hughes!!! He participated in football, basketball and his favorite sport, baseball.

From St. Mary’s, George attended Washington State College majoring in Veteri­narian Medicine. At Washington State he lettered 4 years while playing for the immortal coach, Buck Bailey. They won the Northern Division College champi­onship 2 out of the 4 years, due a great deal to George’s outstanding hitting and catching ability. During his college summer vacations George played baseball for the Medford Merchants baseball team made up of the young and older players in the area. This eventually led to his playing with one of the most successful semi-pro teams ever to play baseball in the State of Oregon. This team, the Cheney Studs, played in Southern Oregon and Northern California for many years. George was the mainstay behind the plate, but played some at first base during the championship years of 1948, 1949 and 1950.