John Grant, Jr. is one of the greatest professional lacrosse players of all time, with a career that spanned 17 indoor seasons in the National Lacrosse League and another 17 outdoor seasons in Major League Lacrosse.
He retired as the NLL’s second all-time scorer with 668 goals, and finished third all-time with 1,446 points. He won multiple MVP honors in both the NLL and MLL and played on five championship teams. His excellence has been on full display for lacrosse fans for over two decades, and Grant Jr. will deservedly take his place among the game’s all-time greats when he is inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame on January 11.
One of Grant’s biggest fans will be in the front row at that induction ceremony, a fitting spot since he also had a front row seat to witness the start of Grant’s Hall of Fame career almost 30 years ago.
In 1996, Andy Shay, now a national championship coach at Yale, was just starting his coaching journey, and had his first head coaching job at Morrisville (N.Y.) Junior College. On the recommendation of some of his players, Shay decided to reach out to a Canadian player to gage his interest in playing in America.
“He was just kind of this folk hero up in Ontario and I decided to call him and see if we could offer him an opportunity to go to college down the States,” Shay said. “For a young coach who really didn't know what he was doing, it was a little more talent than I probably deserved at the time.”
It didn’t take long for Grant to make his mark, and for Shay to realize that he had found something special.
“I remember his first game because he didn’t have cleats and the field was ankle deep in mud,” Shay said. “John was just wearing basketball sneakers and he still had 13 points in that first game. I think he broke the school’s all-time scoring record in just six games. He was just better than everyone else in Division I, let alone junior college.”
The next season, Shay moved to Delaware as an assistant coach to the legendary Bob Shillinglaw and eventually persuaded Grant to follow. Grant earned honorable mention All-America honors in his first season as a Blue Hen, then was named the national player of the year the following year when he finished with 110 points and led Delaware to the 1999 NCAA quarterfinals.
“He was unbelievably dominant, and there would be games where he would have 14 points and he would be walking off the field feeling that he played poorly, for him,” Shay said. “He was the best feeder, the best shooter, the best finisher, and other teams couldn’t cover him with one guy. He was great at everything.”
Shay says that one of the keys to Grant’s success at Delaware, and later as a professional and international star player, was that the moment was never too big for Grant. He never put too much pressure on himself.
Shay recalls a moment from the 1999 season as undefeated Delaware was enjoying a breakthrough campaign and preparing for a game against Navy, which had historically dominated the series between the teams. Inside Lacrosse magazine had written a huge preview for the game, highlighting the looming showdown between Grant and Navy’s two-time All-America goalie, Mickey Jarboe.
“Coach and I decided to put this on John, so we brought him into the office and put the article in front of him and told him that people were calling him out,” Shay said. “We knew Navy was going to be a big challenge for us and Coach talked about the opportunity that was facing us and then basically told John we were going to need a big game out of him. Then he asked John if he had any questions, and John said, ‘yeah, who’s Mickey Jarboe?’ I don’t think he ever cared who he was going against.”
Delaware won that game, 11-8, with Grant netting some key goals and helping the Blue Hens to an 8-0 record to start the season.
“He's the best player I've ever coached and probably the best I've ever seen, certainly that I’ve seen in person,” Shay said. “I don’t know that there’s been many like him, or that I’ll ever coach another one like him.”
Grant and the other members of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 will be officially inducted on January 11 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. Tickets are available for online purchase at www.usalacrosse.com/HOF.
