Neil Grace died in 1967 and was a great contributor to the former Athletic Club.

Neil was a member of the Athletic Club which had many member of the club playing for Southland.
He played alongside men such as; Charlie Barry, Dick Barry, Joe Roche, Fred Crawford, Teddy Kavanagh, Alex Kirwan, Charlie Matheson, Len Morton and the Scully brothers.
The old Athletic Club merged with the Marist club in approx 1927, but there are names that will still be linked to this club such as; Jack Coakley, Maruice Sheehan, Jim Cosgrove, Joe Sparks and Billy Lindsay.
Pat Grace and Murray Grace, the two sons carried on his name playing for Marist senior team with Pat captaing the South Island team and he also led a New Zealand Xv straight after World War II.
​Herb Grace a brother of Neil represented Marist on the Southland Rugby Union and was president for a term.