- Memphis University School
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Memphis University School 
Motto Veritas honorque
"Truth and honor"Established 1893 Type Private all-male college-preparatory Students 630 Grades 7–12 Location Memphis, Tennessee, USA Mascot The Owls (nickname The Buzzards)
Yale Blue
Harvard crimsonRival Christian Brothers High School Yearbook 'The Owl' Newspaper 'The Owl's Hoot' Literary magazine The MUSe Website www.musowls.org Memphis University School (MUS) is an all-male private school for grades 7–12, located in Memphis, Tennessee.
Contents
History
MUS was founded in 1893 by Edwin Sidney Werts and James White Sheffey Rhea. MUS is a college-preparatory school. The school's colors, red and blue, were chosen by the founders to represent the high academic standards of two elite universities, Yale and Harvard. MUS soon developed such a strong reputation among universities that many exempted graduating students from college entrance examinations. MUS prospered and the school moved from the old Bethel Building to the Clara Conway Institute at 297 Poplar until a new campus was built near the corner of Madison and Manassas in downtown Memphis. The campus remained at this site until 1936 when financial difficulties associated with the Great Depression forced the school to close.
However, as the Memphis establishment saw an increasing demand for private education in response to desegregation of Memphis's public school in the mid-1950s, plans were put into place to re-start MUS. The non-denominational school re-opened in 1955 (one year following the landmark supreme court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka) on the current 94-acre (380,000 m2) campus at 6191 Park Avenue in East Memphis. Under the leadership of Col. Ross M. Lynn and a dedicated Board of Trustees chaired by Alexander Wellford, the school graduated its first seniors in 1958. Twenty years later, the school partially relaxed its restrictions and admitted its first Jewish and African American students. MUS graduated it's first African American student in 1983, and by the early 1990s the number of African American MUS alumni had now reached a mid-single-digit level. Despite these changes, MUS maintains its tradition of educating only male students.
Notable alumni
- Chris Bell, musician, member of Big Star
- Hank Sullivant, musician, frontman for Kuroma, past bassist for The Whigs, touring guitarist for MGMT
- Richard Halliburton, author, adventurer
- Tom Hutton, former NFL punter, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles
- J. R. Hyde III, founder of Autozone
- Admiral Charles H. Johnston, United States Navy
- Paul Tudor Jones, Commodity trader
- David O. Sacks, Founder and CEO of Web 2.0 company Geni, Inc.; former COO of PayPal; movie producer: ex. Thank You for Smoking
- Hampton Sides, Author, Ghost Soldiers
- Frederick W. Smith, Founder, CEO of FedEx
- Michael Beck, actor and voice actor
- Bruce Bolton, Wide receiver at the University of Alabama, member of the 1978 National Championship football team.
Athletics
Its athletic program competes within the Super Prep conference, and won state championships in football in 1985, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009, and basketball in 2006–2007. Their archrival in athletics is Christian Brothers High School. The football team is perennially ranked nationally, with the 2008 13–0 team receiving a standing of #25 in the nation by MaxPreps and #17 in the nation by Rivals.com. In 2009 the football team had another undefeated season. The Owls were ranked #4 in the nation by Rivals.com and #5 in the nation in a combination poll by CalPreps.
External links
Categories:- High schools in Tennessee
- Educational institutions established in 1893
- Private schools in Tennessee
- Boys' schools in the United States
- Preparatory schools in Tennessee
- Schools in Memphis, Tennessee
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