UMS-Wright is an independent co-educational prep school in Mobile, Alabama. The school was founded in 1893 as University Military School, and in 1988 it combined with Julius T Wright School for Girls (founded 1956) to form UMS-Wright Preparatory School.

History

University Military School UMS-Wright Preparatory opened as University Military School on October 2, 1893, at 559 Conti Street. The school's founder and first headmaster was Dr. Julius T. Wright (1871–1931). The school's opening day coincided with the 1893 Cheniere Caminada hurricane. The school had a single teacher and twenty-five pupils at a tuition of $8 a month. Dr. Wright served as the headmaster of the school until his death in 1931. William Pape took over after Dr. Wright. Pape died in 1943 and his family turned control of the school over to a nonprofit corporation, the UMS Alumni and Parents Association, Inc. UMS moved the school to its current location on North Mobile Street in 1956 to accommodate the growing number of students.

Girls Preparatory School Thirty years after the opening of University Military School (an all male school) Julius T Wright opened Girls Preparatory School in 1923 to provide a similar education to the young women of the Mobile community. It only lasted eight years as it closed after the death of Dr. Wright in 1931.

Julius T. Wright School for Girls Julius T. Wright School for Girls opened in 1956 at the same location as Girls Preparatory School at 1315 Dauphin Street, which had been newly renovated. It came after a long campaign by alumni of the original Girls Preparatory School to have a female equivalent to University Military School. The school moved to 1400 S University Blvd in 1972. It remained there until its merger with University Military School in 1988.

UMS-Wright Preparatory School In 1988, University Military School and Julius T Wright School for Girls followed the trend of many other single-gender schools around the country and combined to form the co-educational UMS-Wright Preparatory School. Dr. Tony Havard, a member of the UMS English faculty, was named the headmaster and is now the current president of the school.

Description

Structure The school has a three-level structure: the Lower School (K-3 through 4th grade), the Middle school (5th grade through 8th grade), and the Upper School (9th grade through 12th grade).

Campus Located on Campus are five Lower School buildings, two middle school buildings, and one high school building. All three have separate offices and principals. The campus also houses two full-size gymnasiums, a weight training facility, and an athletic training facility. The football stadium, Cooper Stadium, is surrounded by a four-hundred meter track. Also located on Campus are two multi-purpose fields, a twenty-five-meter swimming pool, a baseball field, and a softball field.

Graduation The attire for the graduation ceremony is gender specific for graduating seniors. Female students are required to wear white dresses and carry bouquets. Male students wear the traditional black caps and gowns.

Athletics UMS-Wright offers thirteen team sports for students from lower school to high school. The school competes in the AHSAA division 4A. The Sports offered include cross country, football, soccer, tennis, swimming and diving, track and field, softball, baseball, bass fishing, and bowling.

UMS-Wright also has a long-standing athletic rivalry with St. Paul's Episcopal School, another local private high school that is just 2.2 miles away down Old Shell Road. In football and track and field, the two teams meet every year in the "Battle of Old Shell Road."

State titles UMS-Wright has 156 total state championship titles:

Baseball ~ 1978 • 1988 • 1993 • 1995  • 1997 • 1999 •  2010 • 2011 • 2016 • 2017 Boys Basketball ~ 1998 Girls Basketball ~ 1978 Boys Cross Country ~ 1971 • 1975 • 1980 • 1997 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 Girls Cross Country ~ 1977 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 2004 • 2005 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 Football ~ 1987 • 2001 • 2002 • 2005 • 2008 • 2012 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 Boys Soccer ~ 2010 • 2011 Swimming and Diving ~ 1997 • 2018 Boys Tennis  1968 • 1981 • 1989 • 1990 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2006 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 Girls Tennis 1978 • 1994 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 Boys Outdoor Track ~  1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1990 • 1991 • 1997 • 1988 • 1999 • 2000 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 Girls Outdoor Track ~ 1982 • 1983 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2015 • 2016 • 2018 Boys Indoor Track ~ 1972  • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1985 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2006 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 Girls Indoor Track ~ 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 1997 • 2001 • 2012 • 2013 Junior High Indoor Track ~ 1968 Boys Golf ~ 1961 • 1971 • 1980 • 1983 • 1990 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2014 • 2016 • 2017

Academics

UMS Wright was ranked second out of ninety-seven schools in Niche.com "Best Private K-12 Schools in Alabama" ranking. The average ACT score is 30 and the average SAT score in 1360. 99% of graduating seniors attend a four-year college or university, with the 3 most popular being the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and the University of South Alabama. The school currently has 1,150 students enrolled with a student-teacher ratio of 8:1.

Clubs Art Guild Azalea Trail French Club Spanish Circle Theatre Guild Wright Singers Youth Judicial

Honor Societies Cum Laude Society National Honor Society Quill & Scroll Mu Alpha Theta Science National Honor Society Spanish/French Honor Society National English Honor Society Rho Kappa Honor Society

Honor Council The Honor Council is composed of student representatives in grades 9–12 who are elected to promote honesty and integrity.

Notable alumni Miller Reese Hutchison (around 1895; there are very few records of the early UMS graduates); inventor of the vehicle horn and hearing aid Winston Groom (1961), Author of Forrest Gump Bradley Byrne (1973), former U.S. Representative. Sandy Stimpson (1970), Mayor of Mobile, Alabama Hunter Bronson (2004), boys golf coach at The Montgomery Academy, 2004 4A Alabama High School State Golf Champion, and NSF Advocate for Young Men's Health (focus on monkeypox and HIV). Jay Prosch (2009), Professional American football player Bobby Wyatt (2010), Professional golfer Tanner Allen (2017), MLB outfielder Paige Madden (2017), Olympic Swimmer Maddux Bruns (2021), Pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization

References

External links