Last updated: April 18, 2026
- Founded: 1923 [needs verification on exact year]
- Location: Whitwell, Tennessee
- Mascot: Tigers
- Colors: Red and white
- District: Marion County Schools (MCSS)
Whitwell High School serves the town of Whitwell in the Sequatchie Valley, one of the three high schools operated by Marion County Schools. Its earliest documented history covers the period 1923–1977, published in Turner, Webb & Layne's Whitwell High School's Whitwell, Tennessee, 1923 to 1977 (1990), suggesting a 1923 founding for the school in its earliest form.
Early football
A photograph and roster of the 1930 Whitwell High School football team survives on the TNGenWeb Marion County site, confirming that football was an established program within a few years of the school's founding.
The 2018 state championship
In Whitwell's first appearance in a TSSAA championship game, the Tigers finished 15–0 and defeated Cornersville 7–6 at Tennessee Tech on December 1, 2018 to win the Class 1A state title. Hudson Petty was named the championship game's most valuable player. The win carried a countywide distinction: with the title, Marion County became the only county in Tennessee where every high-school football program had won a state championship.
The Grundy Mine #21 monument
A monument on the school grounds lists the names of the 13 miners killed in the December 8, 1981 Grundy Mine #21 explosion, preserving the memory of a disaster that struck many Whitwell-area families.
The Paper Clips Project
Whitwell's middle-school feeder, Whitwell Middle School, is internationally known for the Paper Clips Project, begun in 1998 as a way to teach students the scale of the Holocaust. The project culminated in the installation of an authentic German railcar on the school grounds as the Children's Holocaust Memorial, dedicated on November 9, 2001, the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Feeders
The high school's feeder pattern runs through Whitwell Elementary School and Whitwell Middle School, both operated by Marion County Schools.
Related
About the town of Whitwell →
About the Paper Clips Project →
About Marion County High School →
About South Pittsburg High School →
Sources
- Tennessee State Library and Archives — Marion County Genealogical Fact Sheets
- Whitwell High School (district site)
- TNGenWeb Marion County — 1930 Whitwell High School Football Team
- Chattanooga Times Free Press — Whitwell wins 2018 Class 1A state title
- Wikipedia — Whitwell, Tennessee
- Wikipedia — Paper Clips Project