Marian Catholic High School (Pennsylvania)


Marian Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown. It was established in 1954 after the consolidation of St. Jerome's High School in Tamaqua, St. Mary's High School in Coaldale, and St. Ann's High School in Lansford. Its original location consisted of a three town campus located in the towns of Tamaqua, Coaldale, and Lansford. Marian Catholic's current campus was constructed on farmland in Rush Township in 1964.

Historical BackgroundSee Marian Newsletter, July 2015.

Marian Catholic High School was formed in 1954 consolidating three smaller Catholic High Schools from the small towns in the Panther Valley. It was then that Archbishop John F. O’Hara decided to combine the three existing schools into one diocesan high school. The high school is staffed by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The oldest high school was St. Mary's in Coaldale. Although ground was broken for a Catholic school at St. Mary's in Coaldale on November 18, 1914 and construction completed in March 1915, it would not be until 1924 that a high school class would graduate. On September 4, 1916 during the formal dedication, St. Mary's became the first English-speaking Catholic school in the Panther Valley.
St. Ann's High School in Lansford began in September 1917 in the church basement. Classes in the school building began in 1924 under the guidance of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. St. Ann's High School was established in 1922, but it was not until June 1927 that the first students to finish a full four years at the school graduated.
Ground was broken for the St. Jerome's in Tamaqua on July 23, 1919. The building was completed in 1920 and was dedicated by Dennis Cardinal Dougherty on May 30, 1921. This high school also began its classes in 1922 and the first class graduated on June 14, 1927.
When the school began in 1954 each of the existing schools acted as a separate campus. Marian freshmen students attended St. Jerome's, Tamaqua; sophomores attended St. Ann's, Lansford; and juniors and seniors attended St. Mary's, Coaldale. The current Marian Catholic High School building was dedicated on August 23, 1964 by Bishop Joseph McShea.
In 1966 Mauch Chunk Catholic High School in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania joined Marian Catholic High School. Mauch Chunk Catholic had begun in 1891 also under the direction of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Although the original three high schools had had separate football teams in the 1920s up to the 1930s, the small enrollments eventually lead to the abandonment of high school football in all three schools by 1938. Then in 1944, a consolidated football team was formed from the three high schools and called the Panther Valley Catholic Golden Dragons; this despite that the schools remained separate entities otherwise. From 1944 until 1953, this “combined” football squad played Catholic High Schools exclusively.

Notable alumni