Joe Musgrove may not be the most famous graduate of Grossmont High School, but fellow Foothillers like three NASA astronauts aren’t painted on the side of a campus building.
He is.
A 25-foot-high mural depicts the Padres right-hander, fist clenched in triumph, as he celebrates throwing the last out of the club’s first-ever no-hitter.
Painted by a crew from Ground Floor Murals, the artwork adorns the back of the new school theater and faces Grossmont Union High School District offices — occupying what is known as Old Main or the Castle.
A crew from Ground Floor Murals finishes painting a Joe Musgrove mural at Grossmont High School. Photo by Chris Stone 
A crew from Ground Floor Murals finishes painting a Joe Musgrove mural at Grossmont High School. Photo by Chris Stone 
A crew from Ground Floor Murals finishes painting a Joe Musgrove mural at Grossmont High School. Photo by Chris Stone 
A crew from Ground Floor Murals finishes painting a Joe Musgrove mural at Grossmont High School. Photo by Chris Stone 
Ground Floor Murals painters wore T-shirts proclaiming a Padres no-hitter by a “hometown kid.” Photo by Chris Stone
The 2011 GHS graduate was quoted after Friday’s historic game against the Texas Rangers as saying: “I think a no-hitter is special regardless of where you’re playing, but it almost seems as if this was meant to be.”
So “meant to be” becomes the mural’s motto — stretching out north along the theater’s backstage side bricks.
A two-woman, one-man crew — wearing “Hometown Kid Joe Musgrove” T-shirts — was making finishing touches Sunday night after more than 26 hours of painting that began Saturday morning.
The Padres commissioned the painting, said a report in The San Diego Union-Tribune. (The male painter told Times of San Diego he was “sworn to secrecy.”)
Ground Floor Murals has immortalized another iconic Friar — Hall of Fame Tony Gwynn.
Mr. Padre was painted late last year in City Heights — on the side of an MMA gym on University Avenue between Marlborough Avenue and 42nd Street.
The Musgrove mural can be seen from the parking lot in front of district offices at 1100 Murray Drive, El Cajon.