Rick Draney, Latter-day Saint Pioneer in Quad Tennis, Inducted Into International Tennis Hall of Fame

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Joel Randall, Church News

Rick Draney has been called by his coach, Jason Harnett, “a transformative force,” and by his cousin, Gary Murray, “a person who has made the most of his life even though the course was changed and in spite of really hard trials.”

And yesterday, Draney received a new title: Hall of Famer.

A Latter-day Saint from Loa, Utah, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 22, in Newport, Rhode Island. Draney joins 263 other members in the hall as the first quad wheelchair tennis player to be inducted.

Also inducted at the ceremony was Esther Vergeer, a wheelchair tennis star from the Netherlands, making this the first year that two wheelchair tennis players were inducted in the same year. Draney is one of seven wheelchair tennis players, including Vergeer, currently in the hall of fame.

Born and raised in Southern California, Draney started playing wheelchair tennis professionally in 1984. Since then, he’s earned 12 singles and six doubles titles at the Super Series level. The tennis champ has competed in the quad division, a section of wheelchair tennis for those with impairments to one or both arms in addition to one or both legs.

Draney has known since November 2022 that he was nominated for induction into the hall of fame. Then, in early 2023, he was informed that he had been selected for induction.

“All of this is just overwhelmingly wonderful,” he told the Church News. “... Whatever successes and accomplishments and contributions along the way, it was because of a lot of other people and a lot of other organizations, and I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of things and hopefully help improve wheelchair tennis and specifically the quad division.”

The Life of Rick Draney

In 1981, just three weeks before he was scheduled to leave on a Latter-day Saint mission, 19-year-old Draney was severely injured in a car accident. The accident damaged his spinal cord, leaving him without the use of his legs and with only limited use in his hands.

“That changed dynamics a little bit and changed the direction and focus in my life,” he said. “But it was something that started teaching me valuable lessons about Christlike love and Christlike service.”

Unsure what direction life might take him, Draney decided to continue his education at Saddleback College. One day, a classmate, also in a wheelchair, invited him to a tennis class on campus.

“I kind of dismissed it for a while,” said Draney, “because I just still was trying to figure out the day-to-day stuff. I wasn’t ready to start thinking about other activities and options and possibilities but got curious enough to give it a try.”

Having played sports earlier in his life, he loved getting back outdoors again with fresh air, sunshine and exercise, playing wheelchair tennis just for fun with incredible new friends. Then in fall 1984, he heard about a tennis tournament in Fresno, California, with a quad division. He entered — and he won his first tournament.

Draney then entered the U.S. Open Wheelchair Championships in Irvine, California. And although he lost in the finals, his defeat encouraged him to push harder.

“I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can do better next year,’ so that motivated me to continue playing and to get more involved in the competitive side of wheelchair tennis as opposed to just the recreational side of wheelchair tennis.”

In the decades that followed, Draney achieved a wealth of accolades around the world, including gold medals at the 1993 International Stoke Mandeville Games and the 1995 U.S. Olympic Festival. The tennis icon even earned a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics with the U.S. wheelchair rugby team.

Draney’s Contributions to Wheelchair Tennis

Inductees into the International Tennis Hall of Fame are honored for their contributions to the sport, not just their accomplishments as an athlete. Draney’s contributions include bold additions to the quad division of wheelchair tennis.

First, he worked “to encourage consideration for the same opportunities for the quad division that the elite men and women divisions were experiencing.” He started advocating in 1992, and the Paralympics finally added a quad division for tennis in 2004.

Second, Draney developed a method of securing a racket in his hand with athletic tape around a wristband. With this method, he tapes each finger individually around the racket handle firmly yet comfortably, then he reverses the tape with the sticky side out to make better contact with the wheelchair’s push rim. While other methods exist to secure a racket in quad tennis, this taping method has worked the best for Draney and many other tennis players.

Third, he has organized and taught at tennis camps and clinics around the world for those of various types of abilities and circumstances. This includes instruction specifically for the athletes in the quad division of tennis, such as producing a video with the International Tennis Federation to share his taping method with others in the sport.

Tennis players from around the world are looking to Draney for inspiration — and he’s looking to them as well: “I take inspiration and motivation and encouragement from everybody that does what they do in their lives to try to live their best life possible. ... If we’re all learning from each other, and we’re all sharing together, we’re all growing together, then good things happen.”

Embracing God-Given Support in Trials

Although Draney is honored for the attention of his awards, he said that “the reality is everyone faces difficulties and trials and challenges and circumstances that they don’t want.”

He continued, “Sometimes, I guess, mine is a little more visible because you can see that I’m in a wheelchair, and yet everybody else has struggles that often we don’t see, but that ... doesn’t make them any less heroic or wonderful or amazing.”

Draney said that strength in difficult circumstances comes by recognizing one’s purpose in mortality, trying one’s best, and recognizing it’s not what happens but rather how one deals with it.

The Hall of Famer also said he wouldn’t be where he is today without the gospel in his life and God’s support.

“I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do with whatever God-given gifts and talents and blessings and skills and abilities” he’s been given to achieve great things, said Draney. “But I know where all of our blessings come from. I know where the good things come from in life, and I’m grateful that I have a perspective that it is those things that help me do what I am able to do.”

Although there is a lot we can do personally, motivation through challenges comes through humility: “There’s an awful lot that we need help with. And whether that’s from family and friends, more often than not it’s the help that we need from our Heavenly Father and our Savior.”

The ability to push forward despite trials “comes from within ourselves,” said Draney. “And what comes from within ourselves, I believe, comes from our Heavenly Father and our Savior.”

He said that faith and conviction give “the desire and the strength to say, ‘Well, regardless of my circumstances, if the Savior could do what He did for me, then I ought to be able to try to do a little bit for myself. And if I can do that, then maybe I also can do something for somebody else along the way.’”

Serving Others Along the Way

The tennis star realizes he wouldn’t be who he is today without the gracious efforts and sacrifices of those around him.

“I would not be where I am without a lot of other people having done what they’ve done. And that ... humbled me to recognize that service is important, that service is valuable, that we all have something to give and that we all have a way that we can make a difference, regardless of our circumstances.”

Draney’s injuries at 19 years old left him with uncertainty, unknowns, challenges and questions that weren’t being answered. “It was a challenge for me because it wasn’t only the physical aspect but the emotional and the spiritual challenges of wondering, ‘Why me?’ and ‘How could I do this?’ and ‘What am I going to do next?’ and ‘What’s life going to be like?’”

With love and patience, his mom, dad and sister “started doing whatever they could to try to be as helpful and supportive of me. ... They just jumped in and did what needed to be done.”

Their support was better than the help he was receiving in rehab, he said. “Without love and support of family and friends to help me along that process of transitioning back into gaining my independence and figuring out the direction and purpose in my life again, it would have been a much greater struggle.”

Having served in Church callings such as Young Men president, bishopric counselor and stake executive secretary, Draney reciprocates the service rendered to him by reaching out to others.

“We all have those challenges and those trials and those difficulties in life. And yet, if we’re willing to look around, if we’re willing to try to do our best, that just might help somebody else do a little bit better on any given day. And we’re all part of this grand family that is just trying to work through this mortal existence together. And when we have an opportunity to help others learn and grow and share, then we’re blessed when we think about those things and we strive to do those things.”

Draney is paying forward the investments in him by strengthening others with his story. “I do hope that it helps somebody else along the way as I have been helped so many times by so many others along my way.”

How to Gain Temporal and Spiritual Success

While Draney helped direct a leadership camp for high school students in Southern California, a speaker mentioned two keys to success: “Number 1, we start. And number 2, we don’t stop.”

“That’s easy to say, but that is not always easy to do in life,” said Draney. “And yet, if we’re willing to begin to do what it is that we think, feel and believe we need to do, then that’s the first step: We have to start that process, and then we have to keep after it. We have to work day in and day out.”

This process, he said, is like gaining conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ in that both experiences require individual efforts. “We can help each other a great deal, but ultimately it has to be a personal decision.”

Draney continued, “Others can share, others can teach, others can proclaim, and the Holy Ghost will confirm the truth of all things, but we have to be the one that’s willing to put in the work, that’s willing to put forth the effort, that’s willing to find out for ourselves what we may be capable of, what we may be able to achieve or attain — whether that’s temporally or spiritually in any way, shape or form.”

From Young Men president to camp coach to gold medalist, Rick Draney has finally reached the highest achievement in tennis via induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. And after support from others, trial and error, serving those around him, and giving his all, there’s one thing Draney can attest to: “The effort is worth it.”

• The story of faith and endurance that carried this Latter-day Saint runner to the U.S. Olympic trials
• Why top recruit Walker Lyons stepped away from USC to serve a Latter-day Saint mission
• Read more Church News articles about faithful Latter-day Saints

Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.