ANAHEIM, California -- This year's NCAA Honors Dinner will be remembered as the one where even honorees were brought to tears by the raw courage of the Inspiration Award winners. Though the Honors Dinner is well-known year after year for its uplifting stories of accomplishment and promise, the January 12 dinner was unique in that every attendee left grateful for his or her own abilities and inspired by those who continue to face tremendous obstacles every day.

This was just the second year for the NCAA Inspiration Award, and this year the award was presented to three individuals. One of those winners was Amanda Walton, a former field hockey and lacrosse student-athlete at Yale University.

One of only four student-athletes ever named Ivy League rookie of the year in two sports, Walton's athletics and academic careers were brought to a halt in May 2000 when a car fleeing police slammed into her vehicle. Walton suffered massive head and internal injuries and broken bones, and she was in a coma for more than a month. She still suffers from a variety of after-effects of the accident, which has left her brain-damaged and in a wheelchair.

With assistance, Walton stood to receive her award, and then she sat back down in her wheelchair to give the most compelling speech many Honors Dinner attendees had ever heard. Walton's speech was in a blue notebook, written in extremely large type, and it was placed in front of her wheelchair on a music stand. Her brother knelt by her side and turned the pages while she delivered the speech herself, in a halting manner that made it obvious that many hours of practice -- and massive amounts of determination -- had been required, both to compose the comments and to deliver them.

While Walton's speech was distorted from the accident, her message was not.

"Thank you, mom, for everything, but most importantly for the gift of hope. Without that hope, I would not be able to have made the tremendous gains I have since that tragic day," she said.

"As my accident has forever changed my perspective on life, I want to challenge you to live life as if you were playing a game. Only now, after my accident, do I truly understand this metaphor. It is my game mentality that I use every day. Goal cages stand for me now at every corner," Walton said, noting that being able to move her hand or foot or being able to speak and be understood -- all while enduring the pain of a variety of physical rehabilitation -- were her goals now.

"These are my goal cages now, and I must try my hardest to score," she said. "I keep asking myself if this pain would take me out of a field hockey or lacrosse game, and the answer is always -- no way.

"While these are my goal cages now and my recovery is my win, each of you has your own goal cages. Don't give up."

The other winners of the award were Todd Williams, a recently graduated former football student-athlete at Florida State University who spent much of his youth on the streets, and Diane Geppi-Aikens, women's lacrosse coach at Loyola Maryland, who has led her teams to national prominence despite fighting brain tumors. Aikens, whose most recent tumor this fall was found to be cancerous, also spoke a few words from her wheelchair.

All three winners received standing ovations from the audience.