This week, our Throwback Thursday features Ambler High School, which was located at Hendricks Street and Tennis Avenue. There are no physical remains of Ambler High School, but the memories have stayed alive through the many graduates who still live and are active in area reunion groups.

AroundAmbler.com had a chance to talk to some Ambler High School graduates about their memories of their school, and as a commemorative gesture, we are offering Ambler High School tee shirts and hoodies in the throwback section of our store. ( details at the end of this article)

photo provided by Frank Rocco | Ambler High School | 1950’s

Frank Rocco grew up in Ambler, and is the former owner of Bar 31 (then The Easy Street Pub), and also owned and operated the Easy Street Baseball Card store, once located on Main Street.  Frank was a junior when Ambler High School closed in 1962, and subsequently graduated from Wissahickon High School in 1963, making his class the first to graduate from the new school.  He also shared that his mother, Ruth Gambone, who graduated from Ambler High School in 1943, is currently the oldest living graduate at age 92.  One of his favorite memories is playing in the Ambler High School Band, especially for the football games in Memorial Stadium.

Photo provided by Frank Rocco |  Memorial Stadium in the 1950’s

During World War II, donations were accepted for a stadium which they built after the war ended. It was named, Memorial Stadium, in dedication to the war’s veterans.  The Ambler High School teams started playing there in 1950. During the 1950’s and 1960’s,  crowds of  up to 12,000 would come from all around the area to watch the football games.

photo provided by Frank Rocco | Ambler High School Cheerleaders

We also had a chance to talk to Jim Cassidy, class of 1957, who also has fond memories of Ambler High School, specifically the football games at Memorial Stadium, many of which were on Friday Nights under the lights.  He explains that there was not a field or stadium like it in the area, and remembers the huge crowds that came for those games…

” Football was “king”, and Friday night lights games, the whole town turned out. For the home games, the Ambler High School band would be allowed to leave school at noon to march through town to stir up excitement and remind people there was a Friday Night football game…The High School was on Hendricks and Tennis so the band would go down Tennis, over to Butler, up Hendricks and come back to school.”

Jim’s father was also an Ambler High School graduate, class of 1927. He also explained that the original Ambler High School was later named, Ambler Joint High School,  because in the early 1950’s the area townships, (Whitpain and Lower Gwynedd) merged with Ambler to become one.  Lower Gwynedd and Whitpain both had their own elementary schools at that time which later became known as the Wissahickon School District.

photo | Ambler High School logo

A few facts about Ambler High School:

• The town of Ambler was incorporated in 1888, and with only 9 students, the first class started at Ambler High School in 1892.
• Ambler High School’s last graduating class was 1962
• The Ambler High School mascot was a Trojan since 1921, as it remains today for Wissahickon School District.

Our throwback Ambler High School tee shirts  and hoodies can be found at the AroundAmbler.com store.