Belvidere High School is located in at 1500 East Avenue, Belvidere, Illinois in Boone County.
| Belvidere High School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Address | |
 | |
1500 East Avenue , 61008 United States | |
| Coordinates | 42°14′38″N 88°49′50″W / 42.2438°N 88.8306°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public Secondary |
| School district | Belvidere Community Unit School District 100 |
| Superintendent | Daniel Woestman 2016[1] = |
| Principal | Billy Lewis |
| Teaching staff | 84.50 (FTE)[2] |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Gender | Coed |
| Enrollment | 1,210 (2022-2023)[2] |
| Average class size | 21.4[3] |
| Student to teacher ratio | 14.32[2] |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Color(s) | Purple Gold[4] |
| Slogan | It's the Year of the BUCS! |
| Song | Notre Dame Victory March |
| Athletics conference | Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10)[5] |
| Mascot | Buccaneer |
| Team name | Bucs[4] |
| Newspaper | The Buccaneer'[6] |
| Yearbook | Belvi |
| Website | Official School Website |
History
editOn the afternoon of April 21, 1967, an F4 tornado struck the school, killing 13 students and staff, tossing buses as students were being dismissed. The tornado was part of the 1967 Oak Lawn tornado outbreak. It was the sixth worse loss of life at an American school as a result of tornadoes, and the worst since 1955.[7][8]
To mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, a memorial to the lives lost in the tornado was erected in front of Belvidere High School in 2007.[9]
Athletics
editBelvidere competes in the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10), and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). Teams are stylized as the Bucs (a shortening of Buccaneers).
BHS Sports: Football, Poms, Cheerleading, Basketball, Dance, Baseball, Tennis, Bowling, Track & Field, Soccer, Softball, Golf, Volleyball, Swimming, and Cross Country.
The school won back–to–back state championships in football in the autumns of 1993 and 1994.[10]
Belvidere High School's current biggest rival is Belvidere North High School. Before that school was created, however, Rockford Boylan Central Catholic High School was their biggest sports rival.
The Bucs branding is also carried over to Belvidere South Middle School.
Notable alumni
edit- Jeanne Gang ’82, award-winning architect, founder of Studio Gang Architects, and designer of the world's two tallest skyscrapers designed by a woman, Aqua and the St. Regis Chicago[11][12][13][14]
- William James Hurlbut, artist, playwright, and screenwriter
References
edit- ^ "Superintendent". Archived from the original on 2015-07-25. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ^ a b c "Belvidere High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
- ^ a b "Illinois School Report Card: Belvidere High School" (PDF). Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ a b "Belvidere (H.S.)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. Archived from the original on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ "IHSA School Directory". Illinois High School Association. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
- ^ "Buccaneer". Belvidere High School. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
- ^ "April 21, 1967 by James Llorca - Growing Bolder". Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ "The Ten Worst Tornado Related Disasters in Schools". The Tornado Project. 1999. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ "Like It Was Yesterday: 50 years since Belvidere tornado". WIFR-LD. 2017-04-21. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
- ^ "Season Summaries: Belvidere (H.S.)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 28 March 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ Gang, Jeanne (April 10, 2011), Jeanne Gang: Success by Design (PDF), Belvidere High School: Boone County Arts Council
- ^ Guerrero, Isaac (April 18, 2017). "Belvidere native Jeanne Gang opens up about her architecture". Rockford Register Star.
- ^ Sullivan, Kate (executive producer and host) (January 7, 2022). "Jeanne Gang – Architect. Founder of Studio Gang.". To Dine for with Kate Sullivan. Season 4. Episode 402. PBS. WTTW.
- ^ "Belvidere native, architect Jeanne Gang gets 'genius grant'". Rockford Register Star. September 20, 2011.