Mullen High School

History

Mullen High School was named for John Kernan Mullen, businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the Colorado Milling and Elevator Company. Together with his wife, Catherine, Mullen envisioned the founding of a high school in Denver for orphaned boys. In 1928, working with Bishop Henry Tihen, Mullen contacted Father Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, for advice on how best to design and operate such a school. Following Father Flanagan’s recommendation, Mr. Mullen wrote to the Christian Brothers of St. John Baptist de La Salle in Santa Fe, New Mexico and invited them to be the directors and teachers of his planned school.

St. John Baptist de La Salle was a 17th-century French priest who established gratuitous schools for the children of the poor and working classes, as well as an order of religious men to teach in and run the schools. An innovator both in the Catholic Church and in education, St. La Salle was a pioneer of the practical liberal arts curriculum, the simultaneous method of classroom instruction, early childhood education, and formal teacher training. In 1950, he was named the Patron Saint of All Teachers of Youth.

In June 1928, Mullen opened negotiations with the De La Salle Christian Brothers. However, both Catherine and John Mullen died before the project could be completed, but their daughters and their husbands carried on with their plans. They purchased a 420-acre (1.7 km²) plot of land on the outskirts of Denver known as the Shirley Farm Dairy. An agreement was made that would allow the dairy to remain in operation in exchange for the students’ opportunity to work in the dairy and receive training in agriculture and mechanics. And so, on April 8, 1932, 17 boys and three Brothers moved into the new J.K. Mullen Home for Boys.

Since then, Mullen High School has experienced four distinct eras of change and growth:

Academics

Mullen's academic year follows the trimester system, with five 70-minute classes a day in each of three trimesters, for a total of 15 classes per year. The school’s academic curriculum comprises college prep, honors, and Advanced Placement courses and a selection of over 130 academic electives. In addition, all students select and complete their own community service projects. In order to graduate, each student must have a total of 70 hours of community service. Since 1983, students have logged over 300,000 hours of service.

AP Courses

Athletics

Mullen is a leading school in Colorado inter-scholastic athletics. Mullen is classified in the state’s 4A size classification but chooses to play up into the Colorado's highest classification, 5A, for basketball and football. Mullen athletes have won state championships in 16 sports. Mullen competes as a part of the Centennial League in all sports except football. In football, Mullen competes in the newly created Super 6 League.

Rivalry with Cherry Creek

Mullen enjoys an intense rivalry with Cherry Creek High School of Greenwood Village, Colorado. This rivalry was developed in the Centennial League and continues despite Mullen and Cherry Creek now play football in separate leagues since 2010. The two schools have met in the 5A State Football Championship game 3 times – 1998, 2004, and 2008, with Mullen winning each time. This rivalry is widely believed to be the state’s top high school rivalry and spans several sports and activities.

Clubs

Mullen offers a wide variety of clubs and organizations. Over 90% of students participate in at least one co-curricular activity throughout the year. Some of these are:

Speech and Debate

Mullen is also a Charter Member of the National Forensics League.

Performing arts

The school's "cafe-chape-torium" (so named due to its functions as the school's cafeteria, chapel, and auditorium), located in the Rilko Center, serves as the venue for Mullen's theatrical and choral performances.

Choir

Mullen offers three ensembles for student enrollment. Mullen Singers, a large concert chorus, is a non-audition ensemble open to students on all levels. Students perform a variety of both traditional and contemporary styles of choral music at numerous venues throughout the year, including formal concerts. Varsity Singers, our men's chorus, and our Women's Chorus are 'training choirs' in which students are taught choral basics. Chamber Ensemble is an audition-only, 16 member group of Mullen's finest choral musicians.

Students are encouraged to audition for, through the preparation of arts songs, local Honor Choirs as well as All-State choir. In March 2006, Mullen Singers performed Mozart's Coronation Mass at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a nationally selected ensemble. In February 2007, they performed as part of a nationally selected festival chorus at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver. In June 2008, Mullen Singers performed by invitation for the 2008 Summer Olympic festival in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, China. During the summer of 2010, two Mullen students went to New York to sing in an audition only ensemble at Carnegie Hall.

Theatre

Members of Mullen Theatre participate in several major dramatic productions throughout the year. In addition to working with student actors, Mullen Theatre's technical aspects are handled by an entirely student-driven tech crew. Past productions include Arthur Laurents's West Side Story, William Shakespeare's Macbeth,' Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly, George S. Kaufman's & Moss Hart's You Can't Take It with You, Tom Briggs's and Louis Mattioli's State Fair, William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I. Mullen Theatre also presents an annual series of student-directed plays, usually held in February.

Mullen Theatre Troupe 778 is an active member of the International Thespian Society and has students participate and compete in a number of events at the Colorado State Thespian Conference each year.

Notable alumni