McCafferty Befriends Ocean Once Again : OC Hall of Fame: Swimmer, whose career was cut short by body surfing accident, says in banquet speech that water has ‘liberated’ her.

Becki McCafferty relives the fateful day in vivid detail, as if it happened last weekend and not in May, 1981.

The former standout swimmer from Mission Viejo High School and UCLA was body surfing off Santa Monica when suddenly her body slammed into something, either a sand bar or an underwater reef, and went numb.

She didn’t know it at the time, but McCafferty had severed her spinal cord and broken three bones in her neck. She couldn’t move her arms. She couldn’t move her legs. She was floating face down in the water, thrashing around, trying to get her head above the surface.

“I went to scream but all that came out was a whisper,” McCafferty said. “Someone finally saw me and rescued me.”

As a result of the accident, McCafferty, who received the Woody Dietch Courage award Tuesday night at the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame banquet, was paralyzed from the chest down.

A promising swimming career--the former Mission Viejo Nadadore was an All-American in the 200-meter butterfly and 400 individual medley at UCLA and participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1976--was ended.

For years after the accident, McCafferty hated the water, cursed it, vowed never to return to an ocean that robbed her of her Olympic dreams and confined her to a wheelchair. But when she finally got up the nerve to take a scuba diving class recently, she found it to be her most liberating experience in years.

“The water was freedom,” McCafferty told the audience in the Disneyland Hotel. “When you’re in a wheelchair, gravity can be your enemy, but under water, it’s eliminated.”

McCafferty’s address was the most inspirational speech of the evening, which featured the induction of nine former athletes and coaches to the Hall of Fame.

They were football coaches Homer Beatty and Bill Cook, basketball coach Alex Omalev, football player Pat McInally, baseball player/coach Bobby Knoop, speedway motorcycle racer Bruce Penhall, track athlete Dwight Stones, softball player/coach Shirley Topley and softball pitcher Bertha Ragan Tickey.

Tom Liegler, who spent 35 years running sports, convention and entertainment complexes, including Anaheim Stadium and the Anaheim Convention Center, received the Lifetime Achievement award.

Bob Clark, a 1969 Orange High School graduate who won the NCAA golf championship in 1969 and in 1984 founded the Chase Mortgage Co., now the largest business of its kind in Orange County, received the Ralph Clark Distinguished Citizen award.

Will Kern, Special Events Department Manager for The Times and a past president of the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, and Mario Dalessi, manager of the Jolly Roger Inn and Restaurant, received Good Guy awards.

Former NFL great Merlin Olsen, the master of ceremonies, noted that before Tuesday night, 47 athletes and one sportswriter had been inducted into the hall since 1981.

“That’s a pretty good ratio, huh?” Olsen said.

Cook, who died in 1976, had a career record of 167-70-24 during his 25 years at Santa Ana College, leading the Dons to two national championships (1940 and 1942) and 11 conference titles.

Beatty had a 161-31-3 record in 21 years as a head coach and guided the Dons to the Junior Rose Bowl and the national junior college title in 1962.

Stones was good enough to compete in three Olympic high jump competitions, earning a bronze medal in 1972 and ’76 and finishing fourth in 1984. During his 17-year career, Stones set seven indoor and three outdoor world records.

McInally, who played 10 years with the Bengals, won NFL punting championships in 1976 and ’78 and was selected to the Pro Bowl team in 1981. He also caught 57 passes for 809 yards as a receiver.

Penhall became the first American in 44 years to win the World Speedway Final in 1981 and then repeated as world champion in 1982 before retiring to pursue an acting career.

Knoop was one of major league baseball’s steadiest second basemen with a .980 fielding percentage during his nine-year career, and has spent the past 13 years as an Angel coach.

Omalev coached basketball at Fullerton College, where he compiled a 259-76 record, and Cal State Fullerton, where he went 138-177.

Ragan Tickey compiled a 757-88 pitching record and played on 11 national championship teams with the Orange Lionettes and Raybestos (Conn.) Brakettes. She had 162 no-hitters. Topley was a member of six national championship softball teams, three as a player, two as a player/coach and one as a coach.