Of all the catchy names for Tucson sports figures through the years â footballâs âCactus Comet,â Art Luppino; basketballâs Coniel âPopcornâ Norman; and baseballâs Terry âTitoâ Francona â it could be that Tucson High and UA tennis and softball standout Serafina Grace tops them all.
âAmazing Grace.â
Thatâs an apt description of Graceâs meaning to the Tucson sports community for almost 40 years. Amazing.
She was a state doubles tennis champion at Tucson High in 1947, which was part of coach Kathryn Youngâs nine girls state championship teams from 1936 to 1950. Grace was also one of the leading softball pitchers of the era, helping the Sunshine Girls win their first-ever state championship, in 1950.
Ranked No. 68 on our list of Tucsonâs Top 100 Sports Figures of the last 100 years, Grace went far beyond tennis and softball. The daughter of a machinist for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Grace became a member of the Tucson Baseball Commission, which regulated pro and amateur baseball at Hi Corbett Field in the 1950s. At the same time, she was the tournament director for the AIAâs state tennis championships.
When her father, Felipe, died unexpectedly in 1948 at age 56, Grace delayed her education at the UA to work at a title company to help pay the bills for her mother and five siblings. That wasnât just a quick fix: Grace did not re-enroll at Arizona for nine years. It didnât deter her sports ambitions.
She played for the UA softball team from 1959 to 1962, a dominant pitcher who went undefeated in three seasons against ASU. She became the tennis coach at Pueblo High School and was a softball umpire and volleyball referee for years.
âFina was good at whatever she attempted,â said Mary Hines, who played softball with Grace in the '40s and '50s and went on to be a Hall of Fame volleyball coach at Catalina High School. âWe won the state doubles championship together (in 1947), and I always knew her as a winner.â
In 1992, Grace was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame and in 2001 was part of the Badger Club Hall of Fame at her alma mater. Her induction class included two of the elite athletes in Tucson history, baseballâs Eddie Leon and footballâs Bill Dawson.
After earning her masterâs degree at Arizona in 1968, Grace taught P.E. in the Tucson Unified School District until retiring in 1987.
Sports runs in Graceâs family. Her cousin, Gil Carrillo, coached Rincon High School to three state championship baseball games in the 1960s. Her nephew, Tony Gabusi, coached Catalina to the 2011 state baseball championship.
Grace died of cancer in 2007. She was 77.
