Research Mick Grace - University

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kick it to tim

kick it to tim

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Mar 31, 2018
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Wondering if anyone has any info on this

i came across this article on Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10688405 - talking about university hiring Mick Grace as coach. however, majority of records i can find, including Jim Main's book about coaches, don't have Mick grace as university coach or on their honor board.

I also note that round the end of July he has fallen ill and they are talking about organising a fund raising game for him.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198483203?searchTerm=mick grace &searchLimits=

Was it possible he was hired as coach briefly then fell sick??
 
kick it to tim said:
Wondering if anyone has any info on this

i came across this article on Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10688405 - talking about university hiring Mick Grace as coach. however, majority of records i can find, including Jim Main's book about coaches, don't have Mick grace as university coach or on their honor board.

I also note that round the end of July he has fallen ill and they are talking about organising a fund raising game for him.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198483203?searchTerm=mick grace &searchLimits=

Was it possible he was hired as coach briefly then fell sick??
Click to expand...
It certainly looks like it. Very interesting!: Mick Grace, I am sorry to hear, has been too ill to coach the University team, and has been so poorly that he
has not been able to work for some weeks. An effort is to be made by his friends— and Mick has troops of them—to raise a fund to enable him to put in
a recuperative spell in the country districts.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242069691/26266423 (30 July 1909)

Mick Grace is now coaching the University team. He has been unfortunate lately in being unable to keep to his work with them owing to illness.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242055466 (9 July 1909)
 
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35Daicos said:
It certainly looks like it. Very interesting!: Mick Grace, I am sorry to hear, has been too ill to coach the University team, and has been so poorly that he
has not been able to work for some weeks. An effort is to be made by his friends— and Mick has troops of them—to raise a fund to enable him to put in
a recuperative spell in the country districts.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242069691/26266423 (30 July 1909)

Mick Grace is now coaching the University team. He has been unfortunate lately in being unable to keep to his work with them owing to illness.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242055466 (9 July 1909)
Click to expand...

Well there is a most interesting discovery isn't it. Certainly looks like he had a little time in June with the Uni team at training, and effects were noticed by observers straight away:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120631126

Not sure when his illness took hold, but perhaps he attended at least one match as coach.
 

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Wikipedia has this to say, and seems to have some of it wrong: Grace had a brief coaching career, serving as St Kilda's coach in 1908 while playing and as coach of University in 1910, and later coaching in Sydney.

Years Club Games (W–L–D)
1908 St Kilda 19 (10–9–0)
1910 University 18 (10–8–0)

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mick_Grace

The AFL records have Gerald Brosnan coaching University in 1910. Grace did move to NSW at some stage (and coached there), but exactly when he moved is perhaps not so clear.

https://australianfootball.com/players/player/mick+grace/957

Mick Grace moved to New South Wales in 1909, where he continued to play for a time, but in 1912 he contracted tuberculosis, and within a matter of months he was dead.
 
kick it to tim said:
Wondering if anyone has any info on this

i came across this article on Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10688405 - talking about university hiring Mick Grace as coach. however, majority of records i can find, including Jim Main's book about coaches, don't have Mick grace as university coach or on their honor board.

I also note that round the end of July he has fallen ill and they are talking about organising a fund raising game for him.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198483203?searchTerm=mick grace &searchLimits=

Was it possible he was hired as coach briefly then fell sick??
Click to expand...
Decent first post, by the way!!
 
There are a fair few articles around early August 1909 documenting his ill health and the subsequent benefit fund set up in his honour

"...writes to me about poor Mick Grace, whose health, I regret to learn, has seriously broken down"
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10724513

"The match between the League and Association umpires for the benefit of the Mick Grace fund is likely to prove an attractive affair. 15,000 tickets are to be printed and will be on sale at both matches to-morrow."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241962777

Most interesting is this from the Barrier Miner (NSW paper) on 04 Aug 1909. Five weeks means before he was even appointed as Uni coach, according to OP...
"For the last five weeks (says the Age) the well-known footballer Mick Grace has been too ill to continue at his work, and a change of air and scene has been pronounced necessary to have his recovery."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45077343

And then apparently by mid-1910 he's miraculously recuperated enough to travel over to NSW and coach the league rep team there to great feedback.

EDIT: An article from Feb 1910 where the journo makes mention of the fact that he saw Mick Grace in NSW, that he's in good health and he's looking for a job.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120134398

Here's an obit from 1912 that makes nothing of his time at University. It really must have been short-lived but it definitely appears he coached at least one game. More research warranted!
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126051400
 
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Gibbsy said:
Fitzroy wore armbands in their 1912 match against University to signify the death of Mick Grace, but the Students didn't! How very odd. Did he really have such little impact at the club?

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11678712
Click to expand...
That is very strange; there's no doubt at all that he had at least some coaching involvement at University in 1909 (there's more than enough evidence here to raise the issue with the AFL people).
========================================
This bit doesn't belong in this thread, but needs to be looked into (from that same link): Fitzroy played Laver (from North Melbourne), and Shaw, in place of Dowell and Collins.

Almost every man on the winning side played well but some who were above the average were P. Heron, M"Lennan, Laver, Cooper, Lambert and Norris

https://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/1912/061719120525.html

The "official records" have Dowell playing, not Laver.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241638708

The Herald names Laver in the side, Dowell isn't named.
====================================
* I have now posted this last bit in the appropriate thread.
 
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Thanks for the help everyone, I'm new to bigfooty.

I am part of a vfl/afl history podcast called "kick to kick" we have been going through each season. We r about to record the 1909 season so this will be a good little tid bit to add in.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Victorian Football Follower 12th June 1909. Unfortunately no mention of M Grace.

20180425_113404-3024x2268.jpg
 
kick it to tim said:
Thanks for the help everyone, I'm new to bigfooty.

I am part of a vfl/afl history podcast called "kick to kick" we have been going through each season. We r about to record the 1909 season so this will be a good little tid bit to add in.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...

What a cool idea for a podcast! Only two minutes in and it already sounds very well produced. I've jumped into the 1900 season for its curios.

Here's a link for anyone interested: https://player.fm/series/kick-to-kick
 
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