Hazard High School


Hazard High School is a public high school in Hazard, Kentucky. The school serves about 300 students in grades 9-12 in the Hazard Independent Schools.
Hazard High School's boys' basketball team, the Bulldogs, won state titles in 1932 and 1955, and won the Kentucky All A title in 2004. Alumni Johnny Cox and Sam Smith played in the NBA and ABA, respectively. Hazard High School's girls' basketball team, the Lady Bulldogs, also won both the All A and Sweet 16 Kentucky state championships in 1997.
The Hazard High School "Band of Gold" was one of ten marching bands chosen to play at George H. W. Bush's presidential inauguration in 1989. It first entered the competitive marching scene in 1987. From 1993 to 1997, the Hazard Band of Gold also competed in the prestigious Bands of America national-level marching band contests, placing 3rd in the nation in their class on more than one occasion at the BOA Grand National Championships held in Indianapolis, Indiana, as well as placing 1st in the Class A division at the 1994 Eastern Regionals BOA competition in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The school received national attention in 1995 when it elected senior Valerie Cornett as its first African American homecoming queen. Cornett told reporters, "The young generation is trying to move forward. Here it's like everyone's equal." Hazard High School was desegregated in 1956, after Brown v. Board of Education. The school was integrated with Liberty High School.

Notable alumni