Steve Grady, one of the winningest high school football coaches in California history, has announced his resignation as head coach of Loyola High School of Los Angeles.

Grady --- who will assume administrative duties within Loyola's athletic department --- has been coaching football at Loyola for 35 years, the past 29 as head varsity coach. He cited the need for a rest from the rigors of such a long tenure as head coach as his reason for stepping down.

The school will begin a search for a new varsity football head coach immediately.

A former CIF Player of the Year at Loyola in the early 1960s, Coach Grady led the Cubs football program to 269 wins, 16 league championships, two CIF Division I titles, four CIF Division I runner-up finishes and 28 playoff appearances in 29 years, including the last 24 consecutive seasons.

After winning the 2003 CIF Division I Championship of the Southern Section of the CIF, Grady became the only man in California prep football history to be named both the State Player of the Year (1962) and State Coach of the Year (2003).

"Steve Grady has had a legendary career at Loyola High, first as an All-American player and later as the head of our football program," said Jesuit Father Robert T. Walsh, Loyola president. "He will be sorely missed as a coach, but we are delighted and blessed that Steve will remain on staff."

In 1995, Grady received the Medallion of St. Ignatius of Loyola for outstanding service to Loyola High School and for devotion to the cause of Jesuit education by then-president. The award, one of Loyola's highest honors, has only been granted 46 times in the school's 140-year history. Additionally, Grady was chosen as one of four outstanding alumni by the Loyola Alumni Association in fall 2004.

One of the stars of Loyola's first CIF championship team in 1962, Grady led the state in scoring, with 35 touchdowns, and in rushing, with 2,097 yards, and earned both CIF AAAA and California player-of-the-year awards. Graduating from Loyola in 1963, he played under Coach John McKay at USC before joining the NFL.

In the last 17 years alone, 37 Loyola players were awarded football scholarships to Division I-A universities. Seventy-six former players have earned All-CIF honors under his direction and four received CIF player-of-the-year awards. Eleven of his former players now hold positions coaching Loyola's three football squads.

Since 1963, 58 Loyola football players have been inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete program. Twenty-six of the 58 honorees have been awarded in the past 10 years alone, with four inducted this year.