Early in 1920, after several years of discussion, a petition, asking the County Court for a vote on the establishment of a high school at Sand Fork, was circulated by D.W. Brannon. With the help of Frank Decker, Sr., A E. Yerkey, N E. Wiant, H.E. Wiant, J.E. Hays, C.S. Hudnall, A.H.Burke, John R. Garrett and others, the required number of signers was obtained. In the primary election of 1920 the issue for the establishment of a high school was submitted to the voters of Glenville District and accepted by a large majority.

Members of the Board of Education then were A.M. Burke, W.W. Burke, and A.S. Davis. The site for the high school, a knoll overlooking the town of Sand Fork from the north, was purchased from A.M. Burke, and work on the building was begun in the summer of 1921, with A.W. and J.W. West as contractors and W.D. Whiting as supervisor. The school year of 1922 was begun in the church building and continued there until the high school building was completed and furnished.

The first major improvement was the construction of the gymnasium in 1938 and 1939. In 1940 the senior class planted the trees that line the driveway up the hill. In the fall of 1941 the school lunch program was established and carried on in the discarded grade building. In 1943 the old gymnasium was made into two classrooms, which have since been used for grades five and six. In 1944 the auditorium stage was remodeled and a new curtain was installed. In 1947 two acres of ground was purchased from J.W. Carpenter. Grading on this land was completed in September 1948, making a level area large enough for a standard baseball diamond. The first time the driver education course was offered in Gilmer County was in this school in 1947; commercial courses have been offered since the mid-twenties. In 1948 a vocational agriculture department was established, and a classroom and shop building for this department was constructed during the next two years. In 1949 home economics was reestablished after several years’ discontinuance.

In the spring of 1950 leveling and grassing of the playground-base-ball field were completed through the cooperation of the County school board, the County road department, and the school. In the fall of 1950 the auditorium was converted into a library, to accommodate the large study halls brought about by the then increasing enrollment. All large-group meetings and performances have since been held in the gymnasium. In the fall of 1965 a new school lunchroom was constructed on the north side of the high school building and only a few feet away. A two-story concrete block building was constructed; the top floor has been used to house the home economics department and one elementary classroom.

A Future Farmers of America chapter was organized here in the fall of 1948 and continued until the vocational agriculture department was dropped in 1966. The FFA, statewide, is organized on a highly competitive basis, and the local chapter won several honors, among them the sweepstakes award in the state judging contests at WVU three consecutive years (1961, 1962, 1963), first place in the livestock judging (1955) and in plant pathology (1954), first place in string band competition (1955), third in the state in the creed contest (1953), third in parliamentary procedure (1954), a third place bronze emblem won at the National FFA Convention in Kansas City (1956), and second in the state in poultry judging (1957).
A Future Homemakers of America chapter was organized in 1951 and has continued to be active, though the FHA is not organized on a competitive basis.

The school each year has competed interscholastically in basketball and baseball, having compiled enviable records in both sports from time to time. In basketball, five sectional tournament championship have been won, (1925, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1956), twice the local team was regional tournament runner up (1955, 1956), three Central Conference championships have been won (1953, 1955, 1956), and one Little Kanawha Conference title (1956), has been taken by the Lions. The school’s only All-Star athlete, Joe Miller (Class B basketball 1953), went on to achieve nation-wide notice in collegiate competition at Alderson-Broaddus College. Three players received honorable mention in the All-State selections: Buddie Minner (1956), and Joe Putnam (1965). An impressive home-floor record of 54 wins and 5 losses was established between 1951 and 1956.

In baseball, played here both spring and fall, seven Central Conference titles have come the Lions’ way (1953, 1954, 1956. 1957, 1958, 1967). Since 1948 the Lions’ baseball teams have won 60% of all games played; the records between 1951 and 1957 show 83% of games won, and 73% were won in 1958-1959. On SFHS baseball star, Herman “Bert” Hamric, “47, went straight from the high school baseball field- - in his day this was Burkes’ meadow- - into professional baseball, spending more than a decade with the (Brooklyn) Los Angeles Dodgers organization and working his way steadily upward from the Class D Eastern Shore League to AAA competition, and a month of regular season play and a barnstorming tour of Japan and Hawaii with the parent Dodger club.

The best year, ever, athletically, was the last of Veteran Coach Alton Peters’ thirteen years here, 1955-56, when his teams won every game played in both sports, except for a one-point defeat in basketball at the hand of Clarksburg’s Kelly Miller High.

FACTS AND HISTORY OF SAND FORK SCHOOL
(Taken from “The Lion’s Roar”) May 29, 1968

The smallest SFHS graduating class was the 1924 class of four members; the largest was the 32-member class of 1966.

The school song, which begins “Proudly stands our schoolhouse on the hill”, was written by Mr. Roland Butcher. Mr. Walker Bailey, ’40, wrote the school hymn, “Look for the Right.”

The evergreen shrubbery near the front south corner of the high school building was a gift to the school from Mr. Ford Lowe, ’35, owner of Lowe’s Nursery in Parkersburg.

In 1969, a county high school was established, combining Glenville, Sand Fork, Tanner, Troy, and Normantown. These five schools became elementary schools, and Gilmer County High School opened in 1969.

Sand Fork High School's girls' basketball team were runners-up to the state champions in 1925. At center was Freda Brown (Burke). Forwards were Ruth Lynch and Violet Moore (Marks). Guards were Dora Wiant (Marshall), Ormeda Moore (Marks).