Courtesy KTVU

I received a lot of positive feedback from last week’s Let’s Go to the Morgue! gallery of Warriors greats from the 1960s and 70s, but there was skepticism surrounding my claim that Golden State center Clifford Ray once saved a dolphin’s life. To be honest, my own memories of media coverage of the 1978 event were more dream-like than concrete, so I decided to investigate further.

I went down to the Chronicle photo morgue and article archives feeling a little foolish. What exactly did I think I was going to find? A photo of Clifford Ray with his lubed-up arm thrust two thirds of the way down the throat of a sedated dolphin?

Not exactly. The dolphin was awake.

Below is some closure to the Clifford Ray tale. Please enjoy the strange awesomeness of it all.





Associated Press photo

This is Cifford Ray on Feb. 25, 1978, getting his arm covered in lube before attempting to reach into the stomach of Mr. Spock Dr. Spock, a show dolphin at Marine World Africa U.S.A. in Redwood City. A bolt fell off a pipe, Spock thought it was a fish, and swallowed it. The arm of the regular vet was several inches too short to reach the bolt, and the 6-foot-9 Ray was called because of his 45-inch reach. Ray was recuperating at home with an injury while the Warriors were on the road.

Associated Press photo

Ray reached into the second stomach of the dolphin, which was not sedated. Look closely — it’s his right arm going into the dolphin’s mouth, while two men hold the animal’s jaws open. A veterinarian from Los Angeles was on an intercom, giving Ray instructions. Ray later told the Chicago Tribune this about the dolphin: “They are a very smart animal and I think he realized he was in trouble. He was pretty much cooperative through the whole thing.” The extraction took less than three minutes.

Above is the next-day Chronicle story about the event. My favorite detail in the article: The dolphin performed in the show the same day. My favorite fact that’s not in this article: Clifford Ray plays the clarinet.

In addition to having a Marine World tiger cub named after him, Clifford Ray was also presented with a bronze-plated plaque containing the bolt, and a lifetime pass to the park. There was also a children’s book written about the event, which I can’t find on eBay. Ray played with the Warriors until his retirement in 1981, and has worked in recent years as an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics.

Courtesy Marine World Africa USA

I have no idea if this Marine World dolphin (or the one in the first photo) is Dr. Spock, but the photos are from the same era, so it’s possible. If anyone from Marine World knows how long Mr. Spock or Clifford Ray the Tiger lived, please let us know in the comments or contact me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Looking at their respective life spans, it’s likely that both died a decade ago or more. (It goes without saying that if you have video of Ray saving the dolphin, which was covered by local news stations, you need to get it on YouTube and send me the link right away.)

My former Los Angeles Daily News colleague Howard Beck, a great NBA writer, interviewed Ray about the matter in 2006 — in this New York Times article. Ray told Beck that the dolphin was grateful: “After that whole incident, whenever I would go to the park, he would always recognize me. … He would come right up to me without being prompted.”