Marion Harding High School is a public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Marion, Ohio Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Ohio, Marion County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately north of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 35,999 at the 2020 United S ...

. Opened in 1893 under the name Marion High School, it received its current name in 1920. It is the only high school in the

Marion City School District Marion City School District is a public school district serving students in the city of Marion, Ohio, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country ...

. The school mascot is the Presidents (often shortened to Prexies) and is symbolized by an eagle named Warren G. They are currently a member of the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference (MOAC). Enrollment was 969 as of October 2017. The school was named after Marion's most famous son,

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

. The original school site is a mere 1/2 mile from the Harding Memorial, which is one of the largest presidential memorials located outside of the Washington D.C. area. In 2003, a new high school was erected with assistance of state funds offered for the replacement and/or upgrade of older school facilities. The old building now houses Grant Middle School.

Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships

*Boys

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

– 1983 *Boys Cross Country – 1952 *Boys Football - 1958 (UPI poll)

Notable alumni

John Courtright John Charles Courtright (born May 30, 1970) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds. Courtright graduated from Marion Harding High School in Marion, Ohio, played college baseball at Duke and was selected in t ...

, Former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player (

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

) *Jeff Ratliff, an

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

wrestling All-American and was a part of the 2003 Ohio State accomplishment of getting the highest score in NCAA tournament in school history until recently winning the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

. Jeff now is Harding's wrestling coach. *

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

(1884-1968), Presbyterian minister, co-founder of The National Civil Liberties Bureau, which eventually became the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. He was also a six-time

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

candidate for president. *

James A. Beckel, Jr. James A. Beckel Jr. (born 1948) is a contemporary American composer and, as of 2012, principal trombonist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been performed and recorded by the Baltimore, Atlanta, Indianapolis Symphonies, ...

(born 1948), Composer and principle trombonist with the

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) is an American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The largest performing arts organization in Indiana, the orchestra is based at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown Indianapolis on Monument Circl ...

. *

Bill Sims Bill Sims Jr. (June 23, 1949 – February 2, 2019) was an American blues musician. Early life He was born and grew up in Marion, Ohio, United States, and began playing piano at the age of four. At age 14, he turned professional and joined the ...

(1949-2019), Grammy-nominated, American

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musician. He was featured in an episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary series

American Love Story ''American Story'' is an American anthology media franchise consisting of several television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX and FX on Hulu. Each series follows a different genre of fiction, with each in ...

about the racism he faced as a teenager while dating his future wife, who was white.

External links

District Website

Notes and references

High schools in Marion County, Ohio Public high schools in Ohio Buildings and structures in Marion, Ohio 1920 establishments in Ohio {{MarionCountyOH-school-stub