Date of birth 21 September 1868 Name Jim Grace Place of birth Burnley, Victoria Role Writer | Height/Weight 182 cm / 78 kg Education University of London Years Club | |
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Date of death 7 January 1939(1939-01-07) (aged 70) Debut Round 5, 1890, Fitzroy
v. Geelong Children Lauren Crace, Thomas Charles Crace Siblings Richard Crace, Cyril Crace, Graham Crace Awards Guardian Fiction Prize Nominations Man Booker Prize, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Books Harvest, Being Dead, Quarantine, The Pesthouse, The Gift of Stones | ||
Jim Grace (21 September 1868 – 31 December 1938) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the club's early years. His younger brother, Mick Grace, played beside him at Fitzroy.
Grace joined Fitzroy in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1890. He played as a full-forward and dominated Fitzroy's goalkicking during his time at the club, winning the club's leading goalkicker award every year from his debut through until 1896. He was also the league's leading goalkicker in his first two seasons, 1890 and 1891. Grace was part of Fitzroy's 1895 premiership team, the same season that his younger brother Mick joined him at the Maroons.
After Fitzroy broke away from the VFA to join the new Victorian Football League (VFL) competition, Grace spent a further three seasons at Fitzroy, playing in Fitzroy's 1898 and 1899 premierships. By this stage of his career, he played often as a ruckman, spending less time at full-forward than he had earlier in his career.
He retired at the end of 1899, with his 186 games and 281 goals standing as club records until Round 11 of 1907 (broken by Geoff Moriarity) and Round 2 of 1928 (broken by Jack Moriarity, Geoff's son, who holds the record as of 2016) respectively.