Yu was also an avid basketball fan and in his sixtieth year served as chairman of the board of the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association. During his tenure he founded Asia's most prestigious basketball tournament, the Jones Cup, which succeeded in whipping Taiwan into a basketball frenzy. The Yu Chi-chung Era was truly a golden age for basketball in Taiwan.
此外，余紀忠秉持對籃球的熱愛，在花甲之年還出任中華民國籃球協會理事長，並在任內創辦了亞洲最知名的瓊斯盃國際籃球賽，每逢賽期，全國如痴如狂，「余紀忠時代」正標誌著台灣籃球的黃金年代。