Michael Clock did not begin wrestling until 1951 when Earl Gillis encouraged him to try the sport. Two years later in 1953, Clock won the Oregon state wrestling championship at heavyweight for Newberg Senior High School.

After earning his bachelor's degree from Lewis & Clark College, his master's degree in mathematics from Oregon State University and his doctorate in mathematics from Oklahoma State University, Dr. Clock began coaching and teaching at Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon. After one year he moved to Sunset High School in Portland, Oregon. Clock was a football coach at Sunset and the wrestling coach at Lewis & Clark College, where he coached until 1966 when he became the head wrestling coach at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Clock was head coach at Pacific until 1989 when he switched to assistant coach. His teams won 16 consecutive Northwest Conference team titles, before the tournament was discontinued after 1984, and finished in the Top 10 13 times at the NAIA and NCAA Division III national tournaments. Clock coached eight national champions and 77 All-Americans at Pacific.

In 2000, Clock and Frank Johnson began a women's wrestling program at Pacific, raising all of funds necessary for the endeavor. One of their former athletes, Sally Roberts, placed third at the 2003 World Championships while another, Tela O'Donnell, was a member of the first United States women's team to compete in the Olympics in 2004.

Throughout his career Clock was active in facilitating international goodwill trips for wrestlers, including serving as chairman of the NAIA Cultural Exchange Committee for 12 years.