Baylor School

• 1. Introduction

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  Baylor School, a private college-preparatory school on the banks of the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, has been shaping students since 1893. On the 12th of September that year, a man named John Roy Baylor opened the doors of his new school to 31 boys, each between the ages of 10 and 17, each paying a tuition of one hundred dollars. The school was held in an old house at 101 McCallie Avenue in downtown Chattanooga. From that first class of 31 boys, Baylor has grown into an institution of over a thousand students, 690 acres, and 286 state championships. How did a modest house-school become the most decorated high school athletics program in Tennessee? What role did a world war play in reshaping its identity? And what does a statue of Icarus, standing in the heart of campus, say about the kind of place Baylor aspires to be?

• 2. A School Takes Root

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  John Roy Baylor was a graduate of the University of Virginia, hired by the leading men of Chattanooga to give the city's young men a rigorous preparation for college. For over two decades he led the institution, until his death in 1926. Just a year before he died, the school officially took his name, becoming Baylor School. His successor, Dr. Alexander Guerry, served from 1926 to 1929 before departing to lead the University of Chattanooga and later The University of the South. Herbert B. Barks Sr. then held the headmaster's chair for the next 35 years, guiding the school through the Great Depression, World War II, and a 1940 polio epidemic that killed one student. He also led the school's 50th anniversary celebrations in 1943.

  Philanthropist John Thomas Lupton provided critical support in 1915, helping Baylor move to its present site overlooking the Tennessee River. That original 30-acre campus has expanded dramatically over the decades, though one feature has remained fixed: the central quadrangle has never moved. Perched within that quadrangle today is a statue of Icarus, placed in memory of Johnson Bryant, a student who died in a 2003 car wreck. The statue serves as a daily reminder to find balance.

• 3. Soldiers and Students

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  World War I altered the character of the school in a lasting way. By the fall of 1917, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were fighting in Europe, and Baylor responded by transforming itself into a military school, earning full accreditation from the U.S. War Department. For more than five decades, the military program shaped daily life on campus. It endured through World War II and the Korean War before becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Baylor dropped the military program in 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, when public support for the conflict was at its lowest point.

  The school's honor code, established in 1916 and modeled on the honor code of the University of Virginia, outlasted the military era entirely. Before every test, Baylor students sign a pledge promising they have upheld both the letter and the spirit of the code. Students charged with a violation face trial before the Honor Council, a student body consisting of two freshmen, three sophomores, four juniors, and five seniors. Punishments range from a warning to expulsion.

• 4. Women Arrive, Rivalries Deepen

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  Baylor admitted young women briefly starting in 1900, then reverted to an all-male enrollment by 1912. It took over 70 years for women to return. In 1985, headmaster Herbert B. Barks Jr. admitted 40 girls - a group that became known as the Fab 40. That change permanently reshaped the school's relationship with its crosstown neighbors. For decades, Baylor had close ties with Chattanooga's Girls Preparatory School; once Baylor began enrolling girls, the two schools became rivals in girls' athletics instead.

  The rivalry that predates even coeducation is with the McCallie School, a boys-only institution whose founding in 1905 set the stage for what the source describes as the oldest rivalry in Tennessee. The focal point is the annual football game, with the entire week leading up to it designated Spirit Week. On Red Day, typically the Friday of the game, students abandon their required uniforms to dress in as much red as possible, with prizes awarded to whoever is deemed to be wearing the most. In 2009, Baylor won the rivalry game for the first time in eleven years, then won it five more times between 2009 and 2013. After six straight losses, the Red Raiders snapped the Blue Tornados' streak in 2022 with a 31-27 victory, then won again in both 2024 and 2025.

• 5. Athletics Above All

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  Baylor's 286 TSSAA state championships stand as the most earned by any school in Tennessee. The school consistently wins the Max Preps Cup for the top overall high school athletics program in the state, including for the 2024-25 year. Swimming has been particularly dominant: the boys have won 30 state titles, the girls 18, and the combined program has claimed 31. Swimming World magazine has named both the men's and women's programs national champions on multiple occasions.

  Fencing has produced 17 state titles. Girls' golf has won 20. Boys' wrestling has claimed 19 state titles, including championships in 2025. The 1973 football team was named national champions by the National Sports News Service. Among the alumni who came through Baylor's athletic programs, Brian Gottfried reached number three in the world in singles tennis, Roscoe Tanner reached number four, and swimmer Geoff Gaberino won an Olympic gold medal. Pro Football Hall of Famer John Hannah is also a Baylor graduate. The school's newest athletic facility addition is a multimillion-dollar Olympic-sized swimming pool that opened in 2006 as part of the Field House.

• 6. Inside the Classroom

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  In 1954, Baylor was one of only 38 secondary schools in the country invited to participate in the then-new Advanced Placement program, and the only school in the South to receive that invitation. Today, the school offers 28 AP courses. The faculty numbers 140 members, with over two-thirds holding advanced degrees. Nearly 40 of those faculty members live on campus as dorm parents.

  Baylor also offers a two or three-year Research Scholars program with tracks in engineering, biochemistry, environmental studies, and sustainability. Students in the program work toward thesis-level research under the guidance of a Ph.D. teaching faculty member. The school has had a student win the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement in math and science, and a teacher has received the National Siemens Award for Exemplary Teaching. The Katherine and Harrison Weeks Science Building, named for benefactor Katherine Weeks and her husband Harrison, who was a student from 1925 to 1928, opened in 1999 and houses biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, forensic science, and several other science disciplines. Its $15 million Weeks endowment is dedicated specifically to STEM programming and the Research Scholars program.

• 7. Beyond the Classroom

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  The Walkabout outdoor program takes students kayaking, rock climbing, bouldering, trekking, hiking, and caving. Advanced kayakers travel annually to Costa Rica; a biennial trip to India involves trekking. The community service program, known by the acronym R.E.S.P.E.C.T., takes 10 juniors and seniors to Kingston, Jamaica, each spring break after they have spent the school year raising money to send Jamaican children to school. On that trip, students visit a state-run home for the aged, a state-run orphanage, and the community whose children benefit from the funds raised. Separately, students travel twice a year to Asheville, North Carolina, to volunteer at a local homeless shelter.

  The Round Table Literary Discussion Society has met since 1942. Tenth and eleventh graders can participate in a student exchange program with schools including the Southport School and St Hilda's School in Southport, Queensland, Australia, and Bishops College in Cape Town, South Africa. Seniors close their final year with a camping trip, a tradition begun in 1975. Baylor counts more than 60 extracurricular organizations in total, and publishes the Periaktoi, an annual art magazine.

  Baylor's endowment stands at $165 million, placing it among the 30 highest endowments of any boarding school in the United States. On a per-student basis, that figure exceeds the per-student endowment of several universities, including Babson College, The College of William and Mary, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.