If not for moving to Roanoke County and running on Ray Bussard’s track team, Mickey Grant’s life might have turned out much differently. The 1962 graduate of Andrew Lewis High School credits his role model during his high school days for a life well-lived.
“I was a West End (Roanoke) kid who probably would have taken a much different path if we hadn’t moved to Roanoke County,” said Grant. “I probably would have gotten into trouble but instead I had great role models like Ray Bussard and Shifty Myers.”
The Grants moved from Wilmington, NC to a small apartment in Roanoke in 1949, then to an apartment on a farm in Roanoke County in 1956. When he was a kid Mickey was known to many as “Little Cactus.” His father was “Cactus Joe,” who had a popular kids’ television program in Roanoke from 1957 to ’72. Every child growing up in the Roanoke Valley during those years remembers Cactus Joe and his train.
The move to the county meant Mickey would attend Andrew Lewis High School and his days as a Wolverine shaped his life. Many of his classmates have passed on but Grant still remembers the great times he had playing sports for the Wolverines.
Mickey was a freshman during the 1958-59 school year and went out for the basketball team. At that time the Lewis teams still played in the small gym that is now used for the youngest recreation basketball teams. Grant made the jayvee team and was introduced to a man that would help shape his life, Ray Bussard. It also started him on a passion that still burns today, long distance running.
“Mr. Bussard announced that those who were to play basketball would also have to run cross country,” said Grant. “I ran and was among the slowest. Then, when the basketball season began, after each practice coach made us run a 440 in 60 seconds or less. My times were too slow almost every time, and it seemed that I was always the last player to return to the locker room.”
The new gym was finished prior to Mickey’s sophomore year, opening in the fall of 1959. Eddie Joyce, who coached the Lewis football team to great success, was the varsity basketball coach and Mickey was on the jayvee team again. He had the honor of being the first Wolverine to score a basket in the building that is now the home to the middle school team. Mickey was a sophomore on the jayvee team that played before the varsity, and he scored the first bucket for Lewis in the jayvee game that opened the doubleheader.
“We had big crowds in the new gym,” he said. “I remember some people thought we didn’t need a new gym because we only got 300 or so people coming to the games. I remember saying ‘build a gym that seats 300 and you’ll get 300, build a gym that seats 3,000 and 3,000 will come. And they did’.”
By the time he was a junior, in the 1960-61 school year, Shifty Myers took over the program and the team continued to get a lot better. Mickey, Joe Browder and Jerry Neighbors were a formidable three-some for a steadily improving team. Grant was the point guard on a team that played as a well-oiled machine, and although shooting the ball wasn’t his main job he outscored Parry McCluer star Charlie Manuel, 17-8, in a win over the Fightin’ Blues. Manuel would go on to fame as a big league baseball player and manager but he was also a great hoopster in high school.
By the 1961-62 season, Grant’s senior year, the Wolverines were a state contender. Mickey served as team captain for a Lewis team that ruled the Roanoke Valley and went on to play in the state final four.
“No one thought Andrew Lewis would ever be good in basketball but we beat E.C. Glass, Jefferson and Patrick Henry twice,” he said. “Those were teams that used to mop up on us. We won the regular season and the district.”
Lewis’ season came to an end in the Group 1A tournament state finals with a 61-49 loss to Washington-Lee High School. The team was led by Ed Hummer, who played with Hall of Famer Bill Bradley on the 1965 Princeton University team that went to the Final Four.
“He was really good,” said Grant. “Whoever Hummer played for won.”
After graduation Mickey attended Baylor University in Texas and played a season on the Bears’ freshman team. However, basketball wasn’t the sport that would shape his life.
“I didn’t love it but I was good at it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bussard was building a reputation as one of the top cross country and track coaches in the state. His Wolverine teams won three City-County championships, three Western District championships, two indoor state championships and an outdoor state championship.
Grant was a member of the track teams but he was by no means a star. After graduating from Baylor in 1966 and serving a stint in the Army he decided to take up distance running, remembering his days with Coach Bussard in high school. It was always something he enjoyed when he was on the Lewis team.
“Coach Bussard was a totally unique individual,” said Grant. “He was always in control. Though tough as nails, he also possessed a good sense of humor. To be one of ‘Bussard’s Boys’ was a top honor at Andrew Lewis.”
By the early ’70s Mickey was running on a regular basis, getting better at it and having a good time. He stayed in touch with Bussard as his times improved and started competing in marathons. His goal was to run in the Boston Marathon, and in 1991 he entered the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. with hopes of qualifying for the ’92 Boston race in April. The cut-off time to qualify was 3:25.59 and Mickey ran the race in 3:24:49, qualifying by a minute and 10 seconds.
“I sprinted in and averaged 7:47 minutes per mile at age 48,” he recalls. “That old Andrew Lewis spirit I learned from Coach Bussard did it.”
Mickey enlisted the help of Roger Fore, who was about the same age and a Boston Marathon veteran. Fore lived in the Northside area but had some ties to Lewis and they were both veterans, Roger in the Navy and Mickey in the Army, so they had a lot in common.
They both ran in Boston in 1992 among about 10,000 qualifiers and “cause runners.” The faster runners started in the front and Roger had run in the neighborhood of 3:12 so he got to start closer to the line.
“From where I started it took me four minutes to get to the starting line,” said Grant. “It took me 28 minutes to get to the second mile but the main thing was I finished. As far as I know I’m one of only three Andrew Lewis graduates to qualify and finish Boston.”
Grant named Byron Yost and Billy Bird as the other two. Mickey finished with a time of 3:51:29 and that was after battling a respiratory infection on the Friday before the race.
“I had tickets to the Red Sox but I didn’t go,” he said. “The pollen was bad but nothing was going to stop me. It changed my life.”
Mickey visited with Bussard a few days after the race to talk about the event and have his picture taken with his long-time mentor. After his stint at Lewis Bussard went on to become a celebrated swim coach at the University of Tennessee as well as coaching the United States Olympic swim team. He’s a member of many Hall of Fames, including the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Grant wrote the letter of recommendation for the Virginia Hall.
“I sat down and wrote the whole thing myself,” he said. “I didn’t have help from anyone.”
Mickey’s last contact with Bussard was in 2006 when the track behind Andrew Lewis Middle School was named in Ray’s honor. There’s a plaque on a stone platform just off the College Avenue entrance to the track and many of “Bussard’s Boys” attended the dedication. Bussard passed in 2010 and many of his “boys” are no longer with us, but his legacy lives on.
Grant, now in his early ’80s, still runs about four miles a day. He’s been at it steady for over 50 years.
“I don’t run as much as I used to but I still love it,” he said. “You hear people talk about the ‘runners high’ and it’s a real thing. It changes my brain and makes me feel so good. I just love the feeling of running and there’s nothing that replaces it.”
And it all goes back to his days at Andrew Lewis High School with Ray Bussard.
“He was the most special person I’ve known in my whole life,” said Grant. “I owe all my running accomplishments to coach Ray Bussard, who started it all.”
