In basketball, he served as a head coach for six years: at Alabama (1912–1915), Texas A&M (1915–1916), and Montana Agricultural (1920–1922).

[1] Graves was the head coach at Alabama, Texas A&M, and Washington, where he led the Huskies in Seattle for 24 seasons (1923–1946).

Graves had a long-standing amicable rivalry with Buck Bailey of Washington State,[7][8][9] whom he coached in baseball and football at Texas A&M.

[10] After several years of playing baseball in the minors, he coached football at Alabama, Texas A&M, and what is now Montana State.

[1] After stepping down as baseball coach at Washington, Graves became an assistant athletic director at the university, where he remained until his death.

[8][17] That December, he was hospitalized in Seattle for treatment of a liver ailment and died several weeks later in January 1960 at age 73.