We lost another Redwood Empire legend this week.
Mike Grace was the area’s best discus thrower of his time and went on to coach for many years in the Redwood Empire.
He was much more than just that as you can read here.
In high school throwing for Santa Rosa High Mike broke the NBL finals meet record and the Redwood Empire record in the discus with a toss of 169-0½.
That held as the NBL meet record until 1980 and the Redwood Empire record until 1971.
It is still the 5th longest throw in NBL finals history to this day and still has him at 14th All-Time in the Redwood Empire.
1965 was a big year for Empire records as four others were broken that year along with Mike’s.
Two Mile 9:18.6 Mike Stone, Lower Lake
440 yd Relay 43.9 Montgomery
PV 13-7¼ Mike McGuire, Analy
Long Jump 24-0½ Mel Gray, Montgomery
Mike taught school at Cook Jr High as well as Piner, Montgomery and Santa Rosa High Schools.
He did a lot of coaching during those years.
I only have what he did at Montgomery when he was my coach.
He coached the Montgomery team to three straight Boys NBL pennants (1977-1979) and the 1979 NCS 3A title.
Plus titles for the 1979 SR All-City Meet and the SR Relays
Grace’s NBL dual meet record coaching at Montgomery was 24-3 for the boys and 22-5 for the girls team.
Mike played a major part in running and keeping alive the Santa Rosa All-City meet.
24 years after Mike won the NBL discus crown his son Josh would do the same in 1989.
At the time they held the Empire Father/Son record for the longest discus throws and are still number two in that category.
They also turned some heads in the Scottish games.
Father, son are graceful competitors in Scottish games
Caitlin Grace is Mile’s granddaughter and was a two time NBL discus champion for Santa Rosa High in 2018 and 2019 and like Mike is in the All-Time top 15 with a 125-11 best.
From myself and so many other grateful athletes, Thank You Mike.