High School Football National Championship

The High School Football National Championship is a national championship honor awarded to the best high school football team(s) in the United States of America based on rankings from USA Today and the National Prep Poll. There have been some efforts over the years at organizing a single-game playoff for the national championship. Sometimes a dominant team in one state would defeat a dominant team in a neighboring state after the regular season and then would self-claim the national championship. However, sometimes such a game could not be scheduled, like in 1936 after Washington High School of Massillon, Ohio refused to withhold its black players in a proposed game with segregated Central High School of Knoxville, Tennessee. Central High subsequently proclaimed itself national champion that year. On December 31, 1938, duPont Manual of Louisville, Kentucky and New Britain of Connecticut played in an actual national championship game in Baton Rouge with the Louisiana Sports Association as the formal sponsor – and, by extension, the Sugar Bowl Committee, which held a series of sporting events leading up to the Sugar Bowl game itself. Manual won, 28–20. The following year, on December 30, the game featured Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which defeated Baton Rouge High School by a score of 26–0. This series of games proved difficult to organize, due to some states' prohibition of postseason play. Pine Bluff, for example, had to receive a special waiver from its state to participate in the game. In 1962, Florida state champion Miami Senior High beat Baltimore Polytechnic in the Orange Bowl and was recognized by Imperial Sports Syndicate of California as a national champion.