Western Colorado University Athletics

A Hall of Fame high school coach was one of two Lifetime Athletic Achievement Award winners honored during the 2009 Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Oct. 2, 2009. Jim Grieve, a 1950 and 1955 Western State graduate, spent more than 50 years coaching high school athletes in Colorado and Idaho.

“He was an educator first and this attitude carried onto the playing field as well as the practice field,” said former Pueblo Head Coach Tom Brockman in one of his nominating letters. “He showed a patience and a willingness to work with anyone that was willing to better himself.”

Grieve graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago, Ill., in 1942. There were no organized sports at the time but he delivered the Chicago Tribune from 12 to 16 and held other jobs to help the family through the end of the Great Depression.

Grieve joined the United States Navy in 1942 with the goal of becoming a pilot. Test scores limited him to being a bow gunner on a Navy B-24 in the South Pacific for nine months. He returned stateside at the Hutchinson (Kan.) Naval Air Station before ending his naval career as a gunnery instructor in Yellowwater, Fla.

At the encouragement of his older brother, Grieve enrolled at Western State in 1946 through the GI Bill and lettered in football, basketball and baseball. He earned first-team all-conference honors in baseball and third-team all-conference accolades in basketball. He led the Mountaineer football team to a third-place conference finish in 1947.

In 1950, Grieve signed a minor league baseball contract and was ineligible for varsity competition. He participated in tennis and intramural basketball during the year.

Grieve was active in the Western State student council from 1946 through 1949 as president of the sophomore and junior classes and student body president in 1949. He was active in drama, debate and government and was one of four students honored as “Mountaineers” by the Curecanti Yearbook in 1949.

Grieve entered the coaching ranks at Manzanola (Colo.) High School in 1950 as head basketball and baseball coach and assistant football coach. In two seasons, he was a part of a football staff that went 25-0 and won back-to-back state championships. Grieve went 44-6 as a basketball coach and finished runner-up in the state tournament in 1952.

Grieve returned to Gunnison from 1952-56 to coach the high school football, basketball, baseball and track teams. He coached the Cowboys to the 1953 and 1954 football conference championships and the 1954 basketball team to the Class A state tournament. Grieve also taught mathematics and elementary physical education in his four years.

A four-year stint in Caldwell, Idaho earned him a nomination for state coach of the year honors in 1956.

Grieve returned to Colorado to start a 21-year coaching career at Centennial High School in Pueblo. He coached Centennial to a state runner-up finish in 1963 and numerous state playoff appearances. Grieve coached the 1964 South All-Star Team and retired as head coach in 1981 as the winningest coach in school history but stayed at Centennial to continue as a mathematics teacher.

In 1982, Grieve returned to the coaching staff as an assistant coach and was part of state championship teams in 1987 and 1992. He eventually assisted Tom Brockman to overtake his own title as winningest coach before retiring from coaching in 2003.

During his coaching career, Grieve was inducted into the Centennial High School Hall of Fame, the Greater Pueblo Sports Association Hall of Fame, the Colorado High School Coaches Hall of Fame and the National High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He earned the Ed Lesnar Award, an honor given annually to the most influential high school football coach in Colorado, and the Joe Kearney Service Award from the Colorado Chapter of National Football Foundation and Colorado Hall of Fame for his contributions to amateur football in Colorado.

Grieve became a member of the Gunnison Elks Club in 1952 and the Gunnison Rotary Club from 1952-56. He continues to work with young people in sports and still regularly plays tennis.

“As a football coach, Jim was second to none,” said Centennial High School Principal Emeritus Frank C. Latino in a nominating letter. “His work ethic and positive commitment to the athletes he coached over the years is beyond explanation. Jim has been an exceptional role-model as a teacher and coach throughout his career.”

Grieve married Janice Gorshe in 1953 and had three sons: Robert, James and John. Janice tragically died in 1960 just as the family was making a new home in Pueblo. Jim remarried to Donna McKinley in 1961, and welcomed Donna’s daughter, Susan.