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| Address | 80 Gerrys Landing Road | |
| Town | Cambridge, Massachusetts | |
| Country | U.S. | |
| Browne & Nichols established | 1883 | |
| The Buckingham School established | 1889 | |
| Merger | 1974 | |
| Conference | Independent School League | |
| Type | Private Coeducational | |
| Religious Affiliation | Secular | |
| Grades | Pre-K to 12 (on three campuses) | |
| Enrollment | 997 [1] | |
| Student-to-Teacher Ratio | 4:1 [2] | |
| Average SAT score | 2000 [3] | |
| Accreditation | NEASC [4] | |
| Nickname | BB&N | |
| Mascot | Knight | |
| Colors | Blue & Yellow | |
| Motto | Honestas, Litterae, Comitas ("Honor, Scholarship, and Kindness") (there is a debate if the motto states 'Honor' or 'Honesty') | |
| Song | Jerusalem | |
| Newspaper | The Vanguard | |
| Yearbook | The Perspective | |
| Blog | The Voice | |
| Endowment | ||
| Website | www.bbns.org | |
| [5] | ||
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is a private day school on three campuses in Cambridge, Massachusetts, educating students from pre-Kindergarten (called "Beginners") to 12th grade. BB&N was established by the 1974 merger of two independent schools, Buckingham School, founded in 1889, and Browne & Nichols School, founded in 1883.[1] The Upper School, grades 9-12, is located at 80 Gerry's Landing Road on the banks of the Charles River. The Middle School, grades 7-8, is on Sparks Street, and the Lower School, grades pre-K-6, is on Buckingham Street. Boston Magazine ranked BB&N #5 in a list of the top private high schools in greater Boston for 2009 and the Wall Street Journal listed it at #34 in a 2007 global ranking of high schools by percentage of students who go on to a select list of top colleges.[2] [3] BB&N received another kind of attention in 2006 when Forbes Magazine found it to be the ninth most expensive private school in the country, the only day school in the top ten.[4] The school has produced two out of the 27 Presidential Scholars from Massachusetts since the inception of the program in 1964 and is a member of the G20 Schools group.[5]
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The "Bivouac", a two-week-long camping trip at the school's property in Harrisville, New Hampshire, at the beginning of each freshmen year is a 56-year tradition. The freshman class is bussed up to the Bivouac location (the former Camp Marienfeld) near Mount Monadnock. Students cook over open fires, bathe in a lake, build latrines, and participate in nature hikes and ropes courses, while getting to know their classmates.[6] The original Bivouac was at a site in Maine made available to B&N through a faculty member, Gibby Graves.
The official newspaper of BB&N is The Vanguard, which is often awarded recognition,[7][8] including a gold medal from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.[9] It was founded in 1973 by John Decker. Published monthly (eight issues a year), the paper is entirely student-run. The editor at large of The New Republic, Peter Beinart, is a former Vanguard writer, Mindy Kaling was the comedic back page columnist for two years, and former Harvard Crimson President and current Wall St. Journal contributor Lauren Schuker served as Editorials Editor. The Vanguard has featured interviews with Bill Clinton, Howard Dean and Sylvia Poggioli, an alumna of the school. Stephen Burgard, director of the Northeastern Univ. School of Journalism, was among the staffers for the paper's B&N predecessor, The B&N News.
Repeating monthly features include Notable Quotables, Horns & Halos, Readers Respond, Day by Day, and Versus. The paper features on- and off-campus news, features, arts, sports, cartoons, editorials, photos, and columns.
Participation in sports is mandatory at BB&N, though students can obtain waivers under some circumstances. A member of the Independent School League, the school has a traditional rivalry with the Belmont Hill School. However, in more recent years, a rivalry with Lawrence Academy has begun to take shape, most notably in the sport of football where for the past few years the Knights and Spartans have been the two most dominant teams in the ISL.
The name of the school's rowing team, the Knights, has its origins in a 1920s Boston Globe article which referred to the team, undefeated against the likes of Harvard, MIT and Kent School, as "the Black Knights of the Charles" - a reference to the rowing team of the United States Military Academy, the "Black Knights of the Hudson." In addition to taking the team name, Browne & Nichols also took black and white as its colors after the article. Buckingham School's colors, blue and gold, were made official school colors after the merger. Currently, the men's rowing team of BB&N still retains its historic black and white colors, contrary to the colors of other existing teams. The Browne & Nichols crew program is one of the oldest high school crew programs in the nation, with a reputation for a high level of competition and speed. The school was the first American schoolboy crew to win the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England, winning the Thames Challenge Cup in 1929.[10][11] The Washington Post commented:
"The Thames Challenge Cup, prize of England's famous rowing tournament, was captured today by eight young oarsmen from the Browne and Nichols School...The American boys, after each victory, gave a fine display of school spirit and overflowing "pep" which added to their already great popularity on the river...Their success was the more impressive when it is considered that the average age of the oarsmen is younger than the average of their defeated rivals. The boys will be received by the American Ambassador at London Monday and then will begin an educational tour of England."[12]
Over the years, one of BB&N's most successful sports has been baseball. The team has won multiple ISL titles and there are many college baseball rosters with former BB&N baseball players. Probably BB&N's most well known alum for his athletics, Zak Farkes, is currently in the Boston Red Sox minor league organization at Single A Greenville, SC. MLB pitcher Rich Hill trained on BB&N facilities during the summer of 2006, and ESPN's Peter Gammons credited his training there with his improved performance (and specifically change up) the following season. They continued their success by winning ISL titles in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, the knights finished their season at a stunning 23-0, going undefeated for the first time in school history. Only one other school in the ISL has ever accomplished this feat.
The Co-ed Fencing Team competes against private and public school teams and clubs. The team fields Epee, Sabre, and Foil squads for both men and women. Over the years, the team has had several individual State Champions.
The co-ed Golf team has made a resurgence in the last few years and even won their first ISL Kingman Tournament title in 2008. The team has also produced 3 individual ISL Kingman Tournament champions in the last five years.
In 2004, the boys' tennis team won the New England Class B Tournament [6] and in 2005, the tennis team won the ISL Championship. The tennis team finished second in the New England Class B Tournament in 2007.[ISLTennis.com]
In 2004, the boys' soccer team, led by head coach Jesse Sarzana, won the New England Class A Championship. The soccer team won the first outright ISL title in school history in 2007 on their way to a class A finals appearance. The team won their second ISL championship in 2009 but lost in the class A semi-finals.
Since 2006, the varsity football team has a combined record of 38-4. In 2006, they won the NEPSAC Class B Super Bowl by defeating previously undefeated Canterbury, 22-8. They were 8-1 the following season but were not invited to a bowl game due to their presence in the Class B and Class D bowls in two of the previous three years. In 2008, BB&N responded with a perfect 8-0 season, and went on to win the NEPSAC Class A Super Bowl and ISL Title by defeating Lawrence Academy, 20-13. As a result, they finished the season ranked 4th nationally in prep school polls.[13] "It is a tradition of excellence" -The Boston Globe. The Knights went 7-0 in the 2009 campaign before hosting a rematch with Lawrence Academy, 7-0 at the time also, for the ISL Championship. The Spartans were able to avenge the previous year's defeat to the BB&N Knights, prevailing 28-26 to capture the ISL title and qualify for placement into the 2009 NEPSAC Class A Bowl Game. This win derailed BB&N's hopes of repeating as ISL Champions and completing back-to-back undefeated seasons. The 2010 edition of the Knights finished 8-1 after cruising to a 35-14 win over Rye Country Day School in the NEPSAC Jack Etter Bowl, named for BB&N's long time athletic director. Numerous BB&N alumni have gone on to play college football, many at the Division I level. After sanctions were imposed on Lawrence Academy for recruiting violations, including forfeiting their 2009 and 2010 league titles, the Knights have now won three straight ISL Championships.
In 2004, the varsity sailing team was undefeated in the regular season. In the past four years, BB&N wrestling has had 6 league champions, 4 league runner-ups, and multiple league placers, and has had multiple representatives at the national tournament and New England tournament.