More Stories
 

Early Weirdness

Unbreakable Records
 

1985 Football Championship
 

Fun Facts About the Hornets
 

The Best Of The Best

Original Triple Threat

Triumphant Turnaround

1978 Football Championship

An Interview with Ardell

The First Great Hornet Star

Talking Football-1928 Style

Tournament Time!

Bert Who??

And The Walls Come Down

THE Game

Maryville vs Chillicothe FB

Hornets vs the Students

Back to Back Blowouts

In the Beginning

Hornet Stories From The Past
In The Beginning
 

   While educational facilities of some form have been around Chillicothe since the earliest days of settlement, the first 4-year school building was built in 1875 with the first official Chillicothe High School Senior Class graduating in 1877. Prior to this school building, education was only offered through the Junior year. In 1901 a new School was built at a cost of $25,000 that served the district until the early 1920's.
     There is no definite starting date for most Chillicothe High School athletic teams, however the 1903-04 and 1904-05 school years mark the apparent beginning of Chillicothe High School sports. Newspaper coverage was sparse in the early days and there were no grand announcements made of new athletic teams. In the earliest days, athletic teams were often frowned upon by School Administrators who feared it would deter from the learning process. Around 1920 School Officials began to recognize the importance of physical fitness as a part of the educational process. 
     Chillicothe fielded High School Football, Baseball and Track  teams  as early as 1904. The exact date of the first Chillicothe football game is not known, but the 1904 yearbook makes mention of the "old rugby boys" playing the first season of football. The 1908 Chillicothe yearbook made note of the first year of football in 1904, stating the played three games and won two of them.
     Boys Basketball began in the 1910-11 season while Girls Basketball was a highly successful fall sport for Chillicothe briefly in the 1920s before being turned into an intramural sport, where each class would field a team and all four would play for the "Class Championship". Baseball was played as early as the 1903-04 school year when the team went 4-3 with wins over Liberty, Cameron and Braymer twice and losses to Moberly, Liberty and Cameron. The first Chillicothe School Yearbook was published in 1904 but these early yearbooks were printed in the spring, usually before Baseball and Track seasons were completed, or in some cases started. Chillicothe fielded Baseball teams sporadically until around 1915 when it diminished into an intramural only sport. A competitive baseball team returned in 1922-23 school year under Coach John Huntz but apparently only existed for a couple of years. The popularity and success of the Chillicothe Track program attracted most of the athletes at a cost to the baseball program. Track and Field teams competed as early as the 1903-04 school year but consisted only of a home meet and an overnight meet in Maryville, which most likely was a sort of "regional championship" held at the college. Boys Golf and Tennis were mentioned as early as the 1926-27 season and there was even mention of a Girls Field Hockey team for a couple years starting in 1927-28. Wrestling made a brief and successful appearance in the 1930s before being shelved until the 1960s,
      Early sporting facilities were sparse to non-existent as were qualified officials. Football teams would play in parks or farmers pastures with ankle to calf high grass. Basketball was played where ever there was space including skating rinks, factory buildings and in the case of one girls game, a school hallway. It would be the 1920s before modern day facilities were built. 1915 marked the first mention of Red and Black as Chillicothe school colors, and the nickname "Hornets" followed in 1916.