Northwestern High School is a public high school in Detroit, Michigan. The most recent enrollment figures for Northwestern indicate a student population of approximately 2,000.
The school features numerous extracurricular activities, including Debate, US Army JROTC, and interscholastic and intramural athletics. NHS also offers several advanced placement (AP) courses.
In 2012 Southwestern High School closed; many former Southwestern students were rezoned to Northwestern.
For more than one hundred years, Northwestern High School has produced many outstanding student athletes who excelled at the collegiate level and beyond; Colt alumni achievements include National Collegiate Athletic Association championships and Olympic gold medals.
In 2008, Northwestern High won the Detroit Public Secondary Schools Athletic League Championship in men's basketball. Since 1919, Northwestern basketball teams have claimed a total of sixteen DPSSAL titles. Northwestern also won the 1928 Michigan High School Athletic Association basketball championship.
Coach Bert Maris led Northwestern's swimming and diving program to three consecutive MHSAA team titles (1925 through 1927). In 1930, the Colt swimming team, coached by Leo Maas, won another MHSAA championship trophy; Maas also guided the school to five consecutive DPSSAL titles (1933 through 1937). To this day, Northwestern remains the only Detroit public high school to win a state team championship in the sport of swimming and diving.
The Northwestern Colts also boast an impressive record in track and field.
Bert Maris and Coach Warren Hoyt led Northwestern to the 1925 MHSAA title in track. Coach Malcom Weaver and the Colts won the state track championship in 1927, 1929 and 1930.
The Michigan high school sports archives also document Northwestern's MHSAA championship titles in tennis (1927), and cross country (1929).
Kermit G. Bailer (1921-1996) Detroit lawyer who spent most of his career working on behalf of civil rights groups and in public service, including civil rights assignments in the Kennedy and Johnson presidential administrations and the 1st Coleman A. Young mayoral administration, died on Nov. 30 1996 (http://www.elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org/biographies/kermit-g-bailer/. Born in Detroit in 1921 on "the old West Side", he graduated from Northwestern High School in 1939 and attended the University of Michigan for 3 years; 1943 – 1945, Bailer served in the US Army Air Force as a Tuskegee Airman, achieving the rank of First Lieutenant aerial navigator bombardier gunner with the 616th Squadron of the 477th Composite Bomb Group. In 1949, he earned a law degree at Wayne State University and went into private practice, taking time out in the 1950s to serve as assistant prosecutor for Wayne County. in the mid-50's, he co-founded the law firm of Taylor, Patrick, Bailer, Weller & Lee, the first black firm to move into Detroit's First National Building and was a co-founder of The Cotillion Club. He also served as General Counsel to Detroit's NAACP chapter and took part in campaigns to register voters and to integrate the Detroit Police Department and helped to organize black voters to support the election of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh (Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes: An Oral History of Detroit's African American Community, 1918-1967 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0814324657). President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1961 as Chief of the Housing Section (https://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr11961bk5.pdf , page 296) and as counsel specializing in urban renewal and public housing, where he drafted the President's Executive Order on Fair Housing. In the following years, he handled legal matters for The Housing & Home Finance Agency as Assistant Administrator for the Workable Program for Community Improvement and continued in its successor cabinet Department of Housing and Urban Development (http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/08/us/kermit-g-bailer-75-civil-rights-lawyer-and-federal-official.html). Bailer left Washington in 1967 to do legal work for Engineering Solutions, Inc. in Los Angeles and to Peat Marwick Mitchell to handle the Model Cities Program for Berkeley, CA, where he later became Director. Returning to Detroit in 1975, he was appointed Corporation Counsel for Mayor Coleman A. Young and served from 1975-1977. Bailer was appointed Chief of Local Litigation at the Ford Motor Company, where he served in the Office of General Counsel from 1977 to 1992. From 1992-96, he remained active in the firm of Hylton & Hylton until two months before his death. Bailer is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit and is survived by four children, Mary Margaret Bailer Hill, Byron Clemon Bailer, Kelly Gabrielle Bailer Krauss and Ryan Kermit Bailer. His widow Penelope Bailer remarried in 2008 and continues living in downtown Detroit. His first marriage, to Mary Ann Clemon Bailer, ended in divorce.
Florence Ballard, original member of the Motown girl-group The Supremes
Henry Carr (1961), former world record holder at 200 meters; won two gold medals at 1964 Summer Olympics; competing for Arizona State University, was national collegiate and national AAU champion; also played in National Football League, selected in fourth round of 1965 NFL Draft by New York Giants, played three seasons as a safety
Albert Cleage, Christian minister; during the mid-twentieth century, was nationally recognized as a leading advocate of the civil rights movement; his first book, The Black Messiah was published in 1968
John Conyers, United States Congressman (1965–present); chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Chris Douglas-Roberts, professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks
Forest Evashevski (1935), a 2000 inductee to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame.
Melvin Franklin (1959), bass singer for The Temptations
Fletcher Gilders (1949), 1948 MHSAA Track and Field Athlete of the Year; in 1949, he established a national interscholastic record in pole vault (13' 3"); also a springboard diver; competed at the 1948 and 1956 US Olympic Trials
Willie Horton, former MLB player (Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners)
James Jamerson (1954), bass guitarist; performed on 30+ #1 Hits for Motown Records; known as the father of modern bass guitar
Alex Johnson, former MLB player (Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, California Angels, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers)
Ron Johnson (1974), played for Eastern Michigan University; selected in first round of 1978 NFL draft by Pittsburgh Steelers; cornerback and safety for seven seasons
Ron A. Johnson (1965), played football at University of Michigan; in 1968 set NCAA single-game rushing record of 347 yards, versus the University of Wisconsin; selected to 1968 All-America Team; was chosen in first round of 1969 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns; traded and played six seasons for New York Giants
Bill Jones (1984), professional basketball player
Casey Kasem (born Kemal Amin), globally recognized radio and television personality
Damon Keith, Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Willie Kirkland, former MLB player (San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators)
Hobie Landrith (1948), played college baseball for Michigan State; catcher for several Major League Baseball teams; first player chosen by the 1962 New York Mets expansion team
John Mayberry, former MLB player (Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees)
David M. Nelson (1938), 5-7, 155-pound University of Michigan halfback; played on same team with fellow NHS graduate Forest Evashevski and Californian Tom Harmon; in 1941, he led Wolverines in rushing, averaging 6.3 yards per carry; later an innovative football coach who developed the Wing T formation
Philip Northrup (1923), top-rated long jumper among Michigan high school athletes in 1923; he became a three-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American, in the javelin throw and pole vault, for the University of Michigan (1925–27); inducted to university's Hall of Fame in 2007
Ray Parker Jr., guitarist, songwriter, producer, recording artist; wrote theme for the blockbuster motion picture Ghostbusters
Henry Reed, NFL player
Carlos Rogers (1989), retired professional basketball player; first-round selection of Seattle SuperSonics during the 1994 NBA Draft
Terry Tyler (1974), selected to Sunkist All-American Team; played for University of Detroit, then 11 seasons of professional basketball with three NBA teams
Willis Ward (1931), won high jump at 1929 MHSAA championships; won 120 and 220-yard hurdles at 1930 MHSAA finals; set national high school mark (1.98 meters) in high jump while winning a third consecutive DPSSAL title in 1931; the second African-American to letter in football at University of Michigan; in track, three-time All-American and eight-time Big-Ten champion; later a Wayne County probate judge
Mary Wells, singer with Motown Records, famous for the hit song "My Guy"
Norman Whitfield, songwriter and producer, one of the creators of the Motown Sound
