The current St. Vincent–St. Mary High School was formed by the merger of St. Vincent and St. Mary High Schools in 1972. The newly merged school took on the athletic nickname of St. Vincent, the Fighting Irish.
St. Mary High School
In 1887
Richard Gilmour, then
Bishop of Cleveland, had commissioned Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Mahar, pastor of St. Vincent Church,[5] the oldest Catholic church in Akron,[6] to establish a mission in south Akron. St. Mary Parish was founded by Rev. Mahar in 1896.[7] The high school was founded a year later. St. Mary's athletic teams were formerly known as the Crusaders.[8]
St. Vincent High School
A high school was opened in September 1906 to provide parishioners' sons with a
classical education beyond
grade school. The parish had already opened St. Vincent Grade School, Akron's oldest Catholic school still in operation.[9] At the time of the merger, St. Vincent High School had graduated over 6,000 students.[10]
In May 2013, St. Vincent–St. Mary alumnus
LeBron James donated $1 million to the school for the purpose of renovating their basketball arena. The project included the installation of a new basketball floor, scoreboard, locker rooms, and bleachers, and the seating capacity, which was raised from 1,600 to 1,831. The subsequently renamed LeBron James Arena now also serves as home of the
American Basketball Association's Akron Aviators.[11]
Athletics
The St. Vincent–St. Mary boys'
basketball team celebrating a District Championship in 2022
* Title won by St. Mary High School prior to merger with St. Vincent.
** Title won by St. Vincent High School prior to merger with St. Mary
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's
verifiability policy. Please
improve this article by removing names that do not have independent
reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate
citations.(November 2015)