ORANGE COUNTY SPORTS HALL OF FAME : Coaches Beatty, Cook, Omalev, Softball Star Tickey Elected

Three former community college coaches and a softball All-American have been elected to the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame.

Homer Beatty and Bill Cook, who coached football at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago); Alex Omalev, who coached basketball at Fullerton College and Cal State Fullerton, and Bertha Ragan Tickey, who played on four national champion softball teams, will be inducted Oct. 29 at a banquet at the Disneyland Hotel.

--Beatty coached Santa Ana from 1959-62, winning a national championship with the Dons in 1962 before taking over at Cal State Los Angeles.

--Cook, a football and track standout at Anaheim High School and USC, compiled a 167-70-24 record as the Santa Ana football coach after taking the job in 1927. He led the Dons to 12 conference championships and two national titles. Cook died in 1976.

--Omalev, a member of the California Community College Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame, won eight conference and two state titles in 11 years of coaching the Fullerton College men’s basketball team. In 1960, he became the first men’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton (then Orange County State College).

--Tickey, a member of the National Softball Hall of Fame, was a pitcher who led the Orange Lionettes to national championships in 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1955. Tickey, who was an American Softball Assn. All-American 18 times, had a career record of 757-88, including 162 no-hitters. She also helped the Raybestos Brackettes in Connecticut win four national titles.

The four were selected from the veterans’ ballot, comprising players and coaches who performed in the county before Anaheim Stadium opened in 1966.