Nile C. Kinnick HS (formerly Yokohama HS) History
Opened as Yokohama American School in Yokohama: 1946
Renamed to Nile C. Kinnick High School in Yokohama: 1959
Moved to Yokosuka: 1971
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According to the 1949 Yo-Hi yearbook, “The Japanese probably never dreamed that when they erected a building on the Bluff overlooking the city of Yokohama it would someday house American sons and daughters. Before the occupation this building which we now use housed a girls’ Commercial College. In 1946 the Eighth Army, realizing the need for an American High School in Yokohama, took over the college and started a high school with eighteen students and two teachers. Months later in September, 1947, there were 150 students and ten teachers. Last fall (1948) there were 165 students and ten teachers.” The school was accredited for the 1948-49 and had a full curriculum. In June 1948, the first class of twenty-four students graduated.
Nile C. Kinnick High School was originally Yokohama High School. The school originally opened in Yokohama in 1946 during the occupation after World War II. The school later moved to Yokosuka Navy Base in 1971 into a renovated Marine Barracks but kept the Yo-Hi Red Devils mascot to remember their beginnings. The current school was officially named after Nile C. Kinnick in 1990. An outstanding scholar and athlete, Nile was the winner of the Heisman Trophy and a graduate of the University of Iowa pursuing a law degree. He was killed during a training mission off the USS Lexington in the Caribbean during WWII. The school hopes that its student body emulates his commitment to service, academics, and personal growth.
For the 1981-82 school year, Kinnick High School was a recently renovated three-story building housing thirty-five classrooms which accommodated 560 students in grades seven through twelve. The high school was staffed with forty educators. By the end of the decade, the enrollment had grown to 750 students.
Kinnick High School had a planned construction of six new buildings with a central courtyard. The first buildings were completed in the fall of 1989. The school was staffed with fifty educators. Fifty different courses were offered.
By the 1993-94 school year there were 775 students with fifty educators. Kinnick High School was in a new facility with six new buildings: the classroom building connected to a building housing the cafeteria, library/media center and six small classrooms; industrial arts building; gymnasium; administrative offices; and music building with a 150-seat theater.
Kinnick High School usually has around 600 students and is about forty-five kilometers from Tokyo.
The school colors are red and white, and the school mascot is the Yo-Hi Red Devil.
Information from internet sites, school yearbooks, DoDDS School Information Guides, and DoDDS Pacific Region, 1946-1986