Memphis University School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Memphis University School
Image:MUS_logo.png
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 red
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

[edit] History

MUS was founded in 1893 by two men named 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 post-war economic boom of the late 1940's and early 1950's saw an increasing need for private education, plans were put into place to re-start MUS. Anthony Dick, the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, had successfully launched Presbyterian Day School in 1947 as a boys' kidergarten through eighth grade institution. A new MUS was planned as a continuation high school for the PDS boys. Realizing that there was not enough space at Second Presbyterian Church to host a first-class prep school, alternative sites were studied. In 1950, the current site was acquired from two families with boys at PDS. Plans were made for the new school and culminated as the new MUS was chartered in 1954. The leadership of Second Presbyterian Church and local business leaders aimed to revive the spirit of the original school. The non-denominational school re-opened in 1955 on the current 94-acre 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. Early in the 1960's, the seventh and eighth grades were moved from PDS to MUS because of space issues at the church.

[edit] About MUS

Memphis University School currently has a student enrollment of approximately 630. The school offers many traditional student activities, but rare among high schools is its student-run honor system, in which students found in violation of the honor code are tried before a council of peers. The system is modeled after that of Werts' alma mater, the University of Virginia.

The school also has a reputation as being among the most academically rigorous private schools in the state. It consistently ranks among the top Tennessee high schools in terms of the number of students receiving recognition from the National Merit Scholarship Program, and also registers among the highest scorers in college entrance and Advanced Placement testing.

[edit] Athletics

Its athletic program competes within the Super Prep conference, and won state championships in football in 1985, 2004 and 2005, and basketball in 2006-2007. Their archrival in athletics is crosstown rival Christian Brothers High School.

[edit] Tennessee Super Prep Conference

[edit] Notable Alumni

Dan Schieder nickolodeon comapany thingey producer

[edit] External links

http://www.commercialappeal.com