A third-team player in his youth, Mike Radford later returned to Exeter City and served the club for nearly forty years as a youth team manager and administrator.

Mike - invariably known as 'Raddy' - was the son of Jack Radford, a Exeter and District League player who had a league trophy named in his honour. First appearing for Exeter City 'A' in 1961, he arrived at a time when the club had second- and third-teams in the Western and Exeter & District Leagues.

Remaining as a player with these teams until 1966 and going on to manage Heavitree United, Mike returned to the club around 15 years later to take charge of the Grecians' fledgling youth development policy that had already moved up a gear thanks to the work of Chris Davey. At a time when the average lower division club's youth set-up consisted of a group of 16-18 year-olds who were paid through the Youth Training Scheme - plus a number of 14-16 year-olds registered as 'associated schoolboys whilst continuing to play for local clubs and schools - Mike was given the customary title of Youth Development Officer.

A significant change in the early 1980s gave Football League clubs the opportunity to take on seven or eight trainees at a time as opposed to just two or three apprentices. Increasingly this meant Mike's remit was to try to 'produce' players for the first-team as well as to look after the football and personal development of those who were not offered a professional deal at eighteen. And, with the greater numbers of young players, clubs set up under-18 teams (and, at times, under-17 and under-19 sides) that competed against each other usually on a Saturday morning.

With the task of achieving this at Exeter City, Mike needed to compete with other clubs as well as looking after the needs of individual players. Furthermore, during the 1990s, the game in England was inching towards the professional clubs working with school-age footballers from the age of eight or nine upwards with age-group teams (under-10s, under-12s, under-14s, etc) aiding the process. At Exeter City, as with many clubs, this was initially delivered under the banner of 'Centres of Excellence' prior to the term 'Academy' becoming the norm later on.

For Exeter City this enormous transformation was achieved on 'Raddy's' watch as the club gained the reputation of 'growing' many of the club's future first-teamers as well as having responsibility for their education between 16 and 18 and their overall individual development.

Eventually Mike stood down from his role within the academy and took on the responsibility of club secretary until his retirement in 2019.