Grimsley High School

History

Established in 1899, Grimsley is the oldest institution of public secondary education in Greensboro and Guilford County, and is one of the oldest high schools in the state. The school campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

GHS was founded in 1899 as Greensboro High School; it became Greensboro Central High School in 1911 and Greensboro Senior High School in 1929 (when it moved to its current campus, after previously having had two locations in downtown Greensboro). In 1962, it was renamed Grimsley Senior High School in honor of George Adonijah Grimsley (1862–1935), an educator, insurance executive, and superintendent of Greensboro's schools, who fostered the establishment of the high school in 1899.

Upon its establishment in the fall of 1899, Greensboro High School was located on North Forbis Street in the former St. Agnes Catholic building, on part of the site of the current Greensboro Public Library, behind the Greensboro Historical Museum. By 1910, this building was outgrown, so for one year (1910–1911) GHS was moved next door to the Lindsay Street Grammar School. In the fall of 1911, the school moved to the site of today's Weaver Academy, where it became Greensboro Central High School, and where it remained until 1929. In the fall of 1929, GHS moved to its current Westover Terrace location, when it became Greensboro Senior High School. See "facilities" section below for a description of the current campus.

In 1902, Greensboro High School established the first school library and book rental system in the state. 10th grade was also added that year (previously 9th grade was the highest grade). In 1911, after the move to Spring Street, 11th grade was added.

In 1934, as part of the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA), two large murals were painted in the GHS auditorium by Raleigh artist James A. McLean: "Energy" and "Education".

The school's original colors were purple and gold (circa 1909–10). Because of increasing difficulty in finding matching shades of purple for athletic and band uniforms, the colors were changed—by vote of the student body in March 1951—to navy blue and white.

The mascot was originally the "Purple Whirlwind", adopted in 1921. Local papers, in an attempt to have variety when referring to GHS's teams (and to save space in headlines) came up with the name "Whirlies" in 1941. (Other variations of "Purple Whirlwinds" had been used back to the 1930s.) The name "Whirlies" caught on quickly and was used interchangeably with "Purple Whirlwinds" until the color change in 1951, leaving the original mascot name as "Whirlwinds". Since the late 1950s, "Whirlies" has been used almost exclusively.

While the whirlwind was the mascot beginning in 1921, in 1956—and originating as the theme of the Whirligig yearbook that year—the Whirlibird mascot appeared, becoming instantly popular. It became the main mascot for the school, lasting until the early 1980s, when the whirlwind re-emerged as GHS's mascot.

Grimsley's Alma Mater was composed and written by Herbert Hazelman in the fall of 1949. Mr. Hazelman was the Greensboro Senior High Band Director for 40 years. The music building is now named in his honor.

In 1958, Josephine Boyd became the first black student to graduate from Greensboro Senior High School. GHS was the first formerly all-white high school in the state of North Carolina to have an African-American to graduate.

On January 16, 1962, Greensboro Senior High School changed its name to Grimsley Senior High School after principal A.P. Routh received a surprise phone call from a Greensboro City Schools official informing the school that the school board was going to change the name of the high school that night, and they had three hours to choose a new name or the school board would choose for them. Routh and the staff chose Grimsley because there was a strong desire to keep the school GHS, and George A. Grimsley was the superintendent of Greensboro City Schools when Greensboro Senior was first established in 1899. The name change took effect on July 1, 1962.

On August 20, 2008, then Presidential candidate, and soon to be 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama played basketball with former SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott in the Sawyer Gym.

In 2013, Grimsley had the graduation of a fifth-generation GHS student, which became statewide news because of its rarity for a public school.

Demographics

43.0% White

38.0% Black

10.0% Hispanic

05.0% Mixed Race

05.0% Native Islander

<01.0% Native American

Academics

The Advanced Placement (AP) program was introduced at Grimsley in 1964 with the introduction of AP European History in 1964, followed by AP English in 1968. Today AP classes are offered at GHS in 19 different subjects. In 1995, the International Baccalaureate (IB) program was instituted at Grimsley, after two years of preparation by the school under Principal Tom Penland. Grimsley was only the fourth high school in North Carolina, and the first outside Charlotte, to offer the IB program.

Facilities

The Westover Terrace GHS campus, which opened in 1929, is unusual in that it is made up of multiple buildings (a conscious decision of the school board in the late 1920s), rather than just one all-encompassing building. The Main Building, Old Science Building, and Cafeteria Building—three of six originally proposed structures—were built in 1929. The cost of living had risen so much in the late 1920s that the other three could not be built at that time; the onset of the Great Depression—soon after the new campus opened—further delayed expansion of the campus.

As of 2015, Grimsley's campus has 11 separate buildings, consisting of the Main building (1929), which has offices and classrooms on the first floor, classrooms on the second and third floors. The Old Science Building (1929) has two stories of classrooms. Immediately behind it is the one-story New Science building (1975). There is a two-story Home Economics Building (1956). The one-story Library Building (1967/expanded 2003) has two classrooms as well as the GHS library. The Old Cafeteria Building (1929) has classrooms on the first and second floor currently. Before 2014, the cafeteria building housed the school lunchroom.

The two-story Herbert R. Hazelman Music Building (1956, named 2004) contains the band, orchestra, and choir rooms, plus numerous practice rooms and two classrooms. The Vocational Building (1942) has two stories of classrooms. The school's auditorium was named after composer John Barnes Chance for his service to the school district. He dedicated his piece, Incantation and Dance, to the school.

Plans were complete in 2011 for a new Cafeteria Building (authorized by a bond vote in 2008), to be constructed behind and between the Home Economics and New Science buildings. The New Cafeteria building was complete by the beginning of the 2013–2014 school year. In recognition of their unending service, the new Grimsley cafeteria was dedicated as the Byrd-Bradley Cafeteria Building in honor of Peter Byrd and Harry Bradley. Byrd was a 1974 graduate of Grimsley and Bradley was a 1977 Grimsley graduate.

Across the service road, "Campus Drive", from the academic buildings are GHS's athletic facilities. The Robert R. Sawyer '55 Gym (1954, originally the "Boys' Gym", then the "Main Gym", named in 2000) was the largest high school gym in North Carolina when built, and was architecturally significant because it had the largest unsupported concrete beams ever built in an American building when it was new. The Auxiliary Gym (1939, originally the "Girls' Gym") has a basketball court, a weight-training facility, and a classroom. Connected to the Sawyer Gym is the John Gordon Dewey '71 Memorial Swimming Pool, which opened in 1976 but became defunct in December 2011 after a large storm uprooted part of the roof. Behind the Sawyer Gym and Dewey Pool are eight tennis courts (1975), a practice field, and the Softball Field (1980s). Across Campus Drive are the other athletic facilities, the Robert B. Jamieson Football Stadium (1949, named in 1975), which included a track (1958–2012) and the Sigmund Selig Pearl Memorial Field House (1950), and beyond the football stadium, the Willie Young/Lewis McCall Memorial Baseball Field (1953, named in 1974 and 2007), and the Cross Country trail (1962). The 2008 bond referendum, besides authorizing a new cafeteria for Grimsley, also includes money for a major overhaul of both the Sawyer Gym and Jamieson Stadium, as well as the construction of a new track stadium and a new softball field.

Athletics

Grimsley is a member of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) and is classified as a 7A school. Known for having a strong athletic program, sports teams at Grimsley include football, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming & diving, golf, wrestling, cross country, track & field (both indoor and outdoor), soccer, softball, volleyball, field hockey, and lacrosse. Grimsley won the NCHSAA 4A Wachovia Cup (North Carolina's former highest classification for high school athletics) for having the states most outstanding 4A athletic program five times: 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990.

An athletic "boosters program", alumni, and the annual Grimsley-Page football game generate much of the funding for the sports programs at GHS.

Grimsley's Robert B. Jamieson Football Stadium (with a 1/4-mile track until it was removed in 2012) was the largest high school football stadium in North Carolina when it was completed in 1949. Today, it is also the site of soccer and lacrosse games in addition to football. It is home to many local events, including fundraisers, special Olympics, the annual North Carolina Coaches' Association's East-West All-Star Game (the first such game, in 1949, was the first game played in the stadium), and the annual fireworks display for the city on Independence Day until 2010, when it was moved to the newly opened White Oak amphitheater.

Construction of a new outdoor track was completed in the Spring of 2012.

The school has two gymnasiums. The larger Robert R. Sawyer '55 (formerly Boys'/Main) Gym provides facilities for most indoor sports such as basketball, wrestling, and volleyball, while the smaller Auxiliary (formerly Girls') Gym has a basketball court, a weight room, and a classroom.

As with Jamieson Stadium, the Sawyer Gym was the largest high school gym in the state when it opened. From 1976 to 2015, attached to the Sawyer Gymnasium was the building containing the John Dewey '71 Memorial Pool, which was permanently closed in December 2011 and torn down in August 2015, after it was determined that structural issues and damage was too extensive to save the building.

Notable alumni

Ethan Albright (born 1971), NFL long snapper and Pro Bowl selection in 2007

Lou Allen (1924–2008), NFL offensive lineman

Murphy Anderson (1926–2015), cartoonist

Samuel Egbert Anderson (1906–1982), military general

Terrell Anderson (born 2005), college football wide receiver

Alonza Barnett (born 2003), college football quarterback

Faizon Brandon (born 2008), college football quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers

Harold "Skinny" Brown (1924–2015), MLB pitcher; member of Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame

Mildred Stafford Cherry (1894–1971), First Lady of North Carolina from 1945 to 1949

Isabel Cox (born 2000), professional soccer player

Constance Curry (1933–2020), American civil rights activist, educator, and writer

Reuben Davis (born 1965), NFL defensive lineman

Rigdon "Rick" Dees (born 1950), radio personality

Mike Elkins (born 1966), NFL quarterback

John Faircloth (born 1939), former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives

Barry Farber (1930–2020), radio talk show host