Clifford Ray's Arms of Hope Saves Dolphin

On February twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight, Clifford Ray, a center for the Golden State Warriors, did something almost no one has ever done in their life. He saved a dolphin's life. Here's the story behind this crazy story today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. Clifford Ray isn't a household name for many people, but he did have a successful basketball career. But he had one unique experience that he might be one of the few people that have ever done before. Born in South Carolina in nineteen forty nine, he played college basketball at Oklahoma University, and it was also a Woodwinds musician. But after playing his career at Oklahoma, where he showed to be an effective defender and rebounder, he would go to be selected in the third round of the nineteen seventy one draft by the Chicago Bulls and was named to the All Rookie Team. It would lead the league in rebounds per minutes played in his first two seasons. In the nineteen seventy three seventy four season had arguably raised best year averaging nine points in twelve rebounds, and the Bulls made the conference finals for the first time. Following that year, though, he would be traded to the Golden State Warriors in a trade that included Hall of Famer Nate Thurman. While playing with Golden State, he was able to make friends with people in the area, as many of us would do, and they made a friend in Mary o'haron, a public relations director at California's Marina World. One day at the Marina World, the staff were cleaning the dolphinsinks and there was a large ball that got loose and fell into the water. When the dolphins named mister Spock, saw the bolt in the water, like most things that were put in the water, he thought it was a fish and he went down and ate it up. Luckily, the cleaning crew saw this and quickly removed mister Spock from the tank to prevent the swimming motions from making the bolt go further and further down his stomach. Because this could cause serious internal injuries. They called it in the veterinarians, and they were very reluctant to have a surgery to remove it. They were trying to figure out how to get an instrument long enough to reach down mister Spock's stomach and retrieve the bolt. Ohheron immediately thought of her friend Ray, whose arms were just under four feet long at three feet nine inches, and this was an asset to Ray on the court, as he stood six ' nine but was able to play center and was able to guard players that were seven feet or taller. And at the time, Ray had actually been injured in rehabbing, so he wasn't traveling with the team as he normally would. When he got the call from a hairn she explained the situation and that they needed something to go down the throat of the dolphin and grab the nut, and she thought Ray's arms would be long enough to do this without harming the dolphin. Ray agreed, and then when he got there, they explained the situation to him even more and started to loose up his arm to go into the dolphin's mouth. Now, what they told him was that dolphins have two stomachs and that Ray may have to go all the way to the second stomach. Ray thought it was a little interesting, So Ray walked up to mister Spock and took his hand and put it right inside his mouth. He made it all the way to the first stomach, and he dug around and he felt nothing. He said, it felt a little interesting, weird, But he kept pushing through and he got to the point where his chin was all the way to the dolphin's mouth, and his hand made it all the way to the second stomach, where he moved his hand around and was able to find the bolt and pull it out. All of this was done on the very first try and saved mister Spock from a complicated, impossibly dangerous procedure to remove the bolt, and saved his life in a cave. Ray and experience he would never forget. The Maria World went on to have the bolt bronze and put on a plaque with Ray's name on it in honoring the occasion. And funnily enough, whenever Clifford Ray went back to the marina, he always noticed that mister Spock would come right up as if to say hello for what he did for him. Thank you for listening to the Day's Daily Sports History. If you like this, follow us on our socials were at DA Sports History on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. We'd love for you to join our community, so we can keep growing as daily historians every day and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history.