Henning High School

The History of Henning High School

The town of Henning (population 241) is located in eastern Illinois in central Vermilion County. U.S. Route 136 passes through Henning which sits just a stone's throw west of Illinois Route 1. The C&EI Railroad (Chicago and Eastern Illinois) and the IC Railroad (Illinois Central) both had spurs that crossed in Henning. The IC is no longer active; the C&EI spur ends in Henning for the purpose of serving the grain elevator still there. The Indiana / Illinois state line is just 9 miles east of Henning. A town of note in the area includes Danville just 11 miles south and a little east of Henning.

The history of Henning and the origin of its high school is not available at this time. It is known that Henning residents supported their own school system for many years. The school, established probably in the late 19th century, flourished for about 5 decades. A guess would be that in the late 1940s consolidation talks with nearby Bismarck, its neighbor of 5 miles to the southeast, were begun. Probably in the late 1940s, the residents of Bismarck and Henning agreed to consolidate school districts. This brought about the Bismarck-Henning School District. The last mention of either Bismarck or Henning on the IHSA web site is Henning competing in the Speech Sweepstakes competition in 1946. The earliest mention of the Bismarck-Henning Consolidated High School is 1960 for football.

All schools for the Bismarck-Henning system are located in Bismarck. The fate of the original Henning School building is not available yet.

Henning High School was purchased in 1999 by Full Fill Industries, LLC and is now home to their aerosol manufacturing plant.

"Henning School Song"

  Now Everyone that goes to Henning School
  Knows how to obey each and every rule.
  They have that smile, that style, that winning way,
  No matter where you go,
  They'll recognize you and they'll say:
  "Now there's a group I'd like to know."
  They've got that good ol' Henning zip and go.
  And Just to see them smile
  Is quite a treat (hard to beat)
  HENNING HIGH!!!

  Cha he
  Cha ha
  Cha he ha ha
  Henning High School
  Rah    Rah     Rah!

Principals

1934-1937 Chester A. Rumble, B. S., ’16; A. M., ’20. 19??-1964 ????? Wilcox

Athletics

Henning High School definitely offered basketball as a sport. Baseball and track may have also been offered but are not mentioned on the IHSA web site. The English Department at Henning had one great year when the tiny hamlet of Henning competed against much larger areas in Team and Individual Speech Competition.

Boys Basketball

The only mention of the Henning High School boys basketball team is of the lone District Championship won by the boys of 1936-37. No other team records or coaches names are listed. If you have any of this information to share it would be deeply appreciated.

1936-37 District Champions

From the 1934 Henning High School Yearbook

1934 Henning High School Basketball team P, Hamilton, Taylor, Tutwiler, McConnel, Robinet, Walters, Hudson, Allison, Berglund, Hamilton, Edington, Hickman, Beck, ANderson, Coach Hay, Mourer, Luttrell, Hanson, Ashwood.

The first game of the 1933-34 season was played on November 3 against Wellington.