High schools with the most alums in the NFL, NBA and MLB, ranked

Maryland’s DeMatha was a launching pad for the NFL’s Chase Young. Oak Hill Academy in Virginia gave a boost to the NBA’s Carmelo Anthony. And Ken Griffey Jr. finalized his pitch (err— swing?) to MLB scouts at Ohio’s Archbishop Moeller. All three high schools are among the top in the nation for producing professional athletes. But none of them is No. 1. What school is? We’ve got an answer. We ranked the 50 U.S. high schools that have helped deliver the most pros to the NFL, NBA and MLB.

At Tyler, Greg Ward (pictured) played varsity basketball and football. The class of 2013 alum was a quarterback at Houston, and, after going undrafted by the NFL, fought his way to the next level, moving to the wide receiver position. He made his NFL debut in 2019 with the Philadelphia Eagles. In doing so, Ward joined other elites who hail from the Texas public high school, including Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell.  

The first private school in our countdown, Los Angeles County’s Serra has been an early proving ground for NFL-worthy talent for decades. The bulk of its alums entered the league this century. Adoree’ Jackson (pictured) and Rasheem Green are two recent Cavaliers turned pros. They’re products of the 2017 and 2018 NFL draft classes, respectively.    

Oakland Tech is one of the more athletically balanced schools in this rundown: It’s been about as likely to produce an NFL player as an MLB pro. Marshawn Lynch and Josh Johnson are among the NFL vets to emerge from the Northern California high school.

Oakland Tech’s MLB products are highlighted by Rickey Henderson (pictured). The Baseball Hall of Fame inductee was drafted out of Oakland Tech in 1976. His 25-year MLB career included four separate stints with his hometown pro team, the Oakland A’s. 

Some high schools produce stars. Muir in Pasadena, Calif., has given rise to an American hero. Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in professional baseball, was a four-sport star at Muir in the 1930s. He is one of three MLB vets with ties to the Southern California public high school.

Robinson’s older brother Mack isn’t included in our count below, but he’s also a distinguished athlete and Muir alum. Among other accomplishments, Mack medaled at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The Robinson brothers are immortalized at a public-art sculpture located near Pasadena City Hall, about a mile from the Muir campus.   

Carol City is a reliable football-star factory. The Florida public high school’s first NFL player was Randy Young, who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com

In each of the next four decades, from the 1980s-2010s, Carol City contributed, on average, four former students to the league. Santana Moss (pictured) was one of them. Moss excelled at football and track at Carol City. In the NFL, the Pro Bowl wide receiver starred for the New York Jets and the Washington Football Team (then the Washington Redskins).

Cornerback Gareon Conley (pictured) is one of the more recent NFL entries to hail from Washington, a public high school about two hours from Ohio State University (where Conley played college ball). Currently with the Houston Texans, Conley was a first-round pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. Other NFL notables to emerge from Washington include Chris Spielman and Jim Houston, both four-time Pro Bowlers.  

Raines is a historically Black (but now-integrated) public high school in northeast Florida. It has a reputation for helping spawn NFL talents. But when it comes to Raines’ most distinguished pro alum, it’s hard to argue against one of its rare NBA contributions: Truck Robinson (pictured). The two-time All-Star forward, who played for the New York Knicks and four other teams, has been called the “GOAT of Jacksonville Basketball.”     

Proviso East is the first NBA-dominant school in our list. At last look, it’s helped send a dozen athletes to the NBA, including the Phoenix Suns’ Jevon Carter, Dee Brown and Doc Rivers (pictured). In high school, Rivers was known by his given name, Glenn. The future NBA coach wasn’t dubbed Doc until his college days at Marquette.

Proviso East is also strong in the NFL department. Green Bay Packers legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Nitschke graduated from the school back when it was known as Proviso Township.

Matt Ware is seen here at a 2006 game for the Arizona Cardinals. In 2001, Ware was drafted out of Loyola -- by the MLB’s Seattle Mariners. He spent a summer playing in baseball’s minor leagues before devoting himself to UCLA and football. Other alums of the Los Angeles private high school to make it to the NFL include Anthony Barr, Gordon Banks and George Kunz.  

There are a lot of famous names linked to Los Angeles’ namesake public high school. The long list includes Star Trek icon George Takei, Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman and super-lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Vernon Dean (pictured) is among Los Angeles’ dozens of NFL and MLB entries. In the 1980s, Dean helped the then-Washington Redskins to two Super Bowl victories.  

Florida’s Central doesn’t mess around: It flat-out produces football stars. Pro Bowlers Willis McGahee (pictured), Devonta Freeman and Bruce Armstrong are among the Miami-Dade County public school’s NFL standouts. Dalvin Cook, a class of 2014 grad, is the latest to bring glory to the Central Rockets. The Minnesota Vikings running back scored his first career Pro Bowl honor in 2019.   

Thanks to the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Centennial may be better known now for its hip-hop connections. But in an earlier era, it was baseball that brought the Los Angeles-area school fame. MLB All-Stars Lonnie Smith, Roy White and Reggie Smith (pictured) are among the major-league stars who emerged from the Compton campus. 

About 100 miles north of Los Angeles, in California’s Central Valley, you’ll find Bakersfield High School. The Kern County campus has seeded the NFL with 20 former Drillers, including Frank Gifford (pictured). Gifford segued from a Pro Football Hall of Fame career with the New York Giants to a TV career in the “Monday Night Football” play-by-play booth.  

The Yates Lions have a long list of distinguished alumni, including “Cosby Show” star Phylicia Rashad and her sister, the director, choreographer and actress Debbie Allen (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Fame”).

On the field, the Houston school is a football powerhouse. It’s helped develop NFL talents such as Dexter Manley, Albert Fontenot and Super Bowl champ Santana Dotson, who’s pictured here after dropping a sack on Troy Aikman. 

Baseball’s been the name of the game at Sarasota. Scooter Gennett posted a healthy .542 on-base percentage, and a .470 batting average in his senior season at the Florida public school. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted the infielder in 2009. An All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds, Gennett was most recently with the San Francisco Giants. His Sarasota Sailors teammate, class of 2008’s Casey Kelly, made the majors as a pitcher in 2012. 

Longview is a football heavyweight that’s yielded one very famous Texas Longhorns fan in Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey -- and more than 20 NFL players. Trent Williams (pictured) is one of the school’s more recent acclaimed entries. Seen here in a 2020 game for the San Francisco 49ers, the seven-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle saw his No. 71 Longview jersey retired by the high school in 2017. Longview’s lone MLB entry is a heavy hitter, too. Chris Davis, a 2004 Longview grad, is a two-time, MLB home-run champ.

According to the stats, Glenville hasn’t produced a single NBA- or MLB-worthy athlete. But that’s OK: The Cleveland public school has spawned more than two dozen NFLers. The school’s list of football pros dates all the way back to the 1920s and runs to today.

Pro-Football-Reference.com cites six former Glenville athletes as suiting up in the 2020 season. The group includes Frank Clark, Marshon Lattimore and veteran wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. (pictured).

In a way, Bishop Amat has been as much a football-talent factory for USC as for the NFL. The Southern California private school has helped send the likes of John McKay, Pat Haden, Paul McDonald and Daylon McCutcheon (pictured) to both destinations. McCutcheon, the son of Los Angeles Rams great Lawrence McCuthcheon, carved out a seven-year NFL career, all spent with the Cleveland Browns. The class of 1995 Bishop Amat grad is now the school’s varsity football coach. Three-time MLB All-Star pitcher Dan Haren, meanwhile, is among Bishop Amat’s considerable contributions to pro baseball.   

Andre Johnson (pictured) is the most recent Miami alum to suit up in the NFL. The product of Miami’s namesake public high school, Johnson was a seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver who spent the bulk of his 14-year NFL career with the Houston Texans. Other former Miami Stingarees who’ve gone pro include former NFL wide receiver Eddie Brown, and NBA long-timer and Miami Heat fixture Udonis Haslem. 

Hillsborough’s football program predates the 1920 founding of the NFL. Since the league caught up with the school’s love of the game, the Terriers have contributed more than a dozen players, including current Dallas Cowboys cornerback Anthony Brown and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair.

Hillsborough’s MLB products arguably have been even more high-profile. They include slugger Gary Sheffield and onetime pitching sensation Dwight Gooden (pictured).

Frank Gore is seen here warming up before a 2020 game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The veteran NFL running back, most recently with the New York Jets, is one of three Coral Gables products to play in the league in the 2020 season.

Another pro talent linked to the public school is 2007 World Series MVP Mike Lowell. Back in the day, the MLB great’s father once recounted, Mike Lowell transferred to Corall Gables after being told “he wasn’t good enough” to play baseball at Columbus, a Miami private. 

The talent linked to McClymonds is staggering. The Northern California public high school’s elite list of alumni includes Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell and Baseball Hall of Fame slugger-turned-manager Frank Robinson.

And then there’s Curt Flood (pictured). Flood was a very good baseball player, but he was even more valuable off the field, where his legal challenge to MLB’s contract system helped pave the way for free agency -- and usher in the modern sports era.  

Ten-time NBA All-Star Paul Pierce (pictured), Reggie Theus and Harold Miner are among the hoops standouts who’ve emerged from Inglewood. But even those bright stars don’t outshine the school’s contributions to NFL rosters. There are two former Inglewood Sentinels suiting up for the 2020 NFL season: Seattle Seahawks defensive end Benson Mayowa; and New York Jets linebacker Patrick Onwuasor. 

George Washington Prep is yet another Los Angeles public school that’s turned out a diverse cast of notables -- and since we’re sticking to sports, we’re not even talking about Ice Cube and surf-guitar king Dick Dale.

Among the school’s mix of NFL and MLB talents, James Lofton stands apart. The eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- and has a special place, literally, in the Green Bay Packers’ own Hall of Fame museum (pictured).

Evanston is best known for producing acting Cusacks (including John and Joan) -- and football-playing pros. Recent ex-Wildkits to play in the NFL include fullback Cecil Martin, tight end Damon Jones and tackle Mike Kenn. Emery Moorehead (pictured) is another Evanston product. He played for three NFL teams, including the New York Giants, and had two receptions for the Chicago Bears in the team’s Super Bowl XX-winning effort. 

Mike Evans is seen here in a 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers game against the Chicago Bears. The three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver is a product of Texas’ own Ball. At last count, the public high school had given rise to two dozen NFL players. Other ex-Tornadoes in the game have included Kimble Anders and Charles Alexander.  

Like Bishop Amat, this school has been a pipeline to both USC and the NFL. Matt Leinart (pictured) and Matt Barkley are two Mater Dei Monarch alums -- and quarterbacks -- who also led the Trojans before heading to the next level. Todd Marinovich is another USC-turned-NFL QB who played at Mater Dei. But he transferred, and isn’t included in our count.

Archbishop Moeller has helped provide the NFL and MLB almost equally with its former students, but the Ohio private school’s MLB class shines brightest of all. The Seattle Mariners drafted Ken Griffey Jr. (pictured) out of Archbishop Moeller with the overall No. 1 pick of the 1987 MLB Draft. Griffey went on to a Baseball Hall of Fame career -- just like another one of his fellow Archbishop Moeller alums, Barry Larkin.  

When Graig Nettles signed with the San Diego Padres in the mid-1980s, it was a homecoming for the third baseman, who’d won two World Series rings with the New York Yankeees. Nettles went to high school at San Diego’s namesake campus. In addition to the six-time MLB All Star, the public school has helped deliver brothers Art Powell and Charley Powell to the NFL, and Jeremy Tyler to the NBA. 

Before the fearsome defensive end Harvey Martin (pictured) won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, he worked on his moves for South Oak Cliff. The Dallas public school hasn’t helped deliver anyone to the NFL in more than a decade, but its historical roster is deep. In addition to Martin, ex-South Oak Cliff Bears to play in the NFL include Rod Jones and Wayne Morris.  

Actor Rob Lowe and MMA star Ronda Rousey are among the notables who’ve walked the hallways at Santa Monica. The Southern California public high school has cemented its rep as a top sports school by helping give rise to dozens of future NFL and MLB athletes, including Dennis Thurman (pictured) and Glyn Milburn.  

Southern California’s Pasadena Unified School District only has two, traditional 9-12 public high schools -- and both of them are on this list. Pasadena ranks higher than its rival, Muir, on the strength of its output of future NBA and MLB pros. (The two schools are tied in the NFL department, with 19 players each.) Pasadena alum Michael Cooper (pictured) was a key contributor to the Los Angeles Lakers’ five NBA championships of the Magic Johnson era. Cooper graduated from Pasadena in 1974.  

Lincoln’s notable NFL entries are, in fact, legendary. Pro Football Hall of Fame running backs Marcus Allen (pictured) and Terrell Davis both emerged from the San Diego public high school. Allen entered the NFL in 1982; Davis, in 1995. Between them, they played on three Super Bowl winning teams. Each earned the title Super Bowl MVP. 

Jon Arnett (pictured) played before wall-to-wall spectators at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1950s and 1960s. The L.A. native and five-time Pro Bowler first played before slightly smaller local crowds for Manual Arts.

The L.A. public high school has produced a variety of pro athletes. In addition to Arnett, Pro Football Hall of Famer Tom Fears and two-time MLB All-Star Paul Blair called Manual Arts their high-school home.

Oak Hill Academy is famous for doing one thing very, very well: producing elite basketball talent. Carmelo Anthony (pictured), Rajon Rondo and Stephen Jackson are among the dozens of future NBA players who’ve matriculated at the private Virginia boarding school.

Kevin Durant attended, but didn’t graduate from, Oak Hill. (The future NBA star opted to spend his senior year closer to his Washington, D.C., home.) Even though Durant isn’t an official Oak Hill alum, he values his time there: “It's good for your game,” he once told ESPN. “...[I]t's in the middle of nowhere, so all you can do is play basketball and go to school.” (Durant is not included in our count.)

This Illinois public high school has helped contribute a diverse slate of athletes to the pros. Lane Tech’s NFL alums include San Francisco 49ers guard Laken Tomlinson (pictured). Its MLB brotherhood includes one-time MLB All-Star pitcher Buzz Capra. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette is seen here in action in a 2020 game against the Carolina Panthers. Fournette is one of four current NFL players with roots in St. Augustine, the New Orleans private school and de-facto football-star factory. The other ex-Purple Knights suiting up for NFL action in 2020 are Tyrann Mathieu, Stanley Morgan Jr. and Trai Turner, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.

Hannibal Navies (pictured) played linebacker for nine years in the NFL with four teams, including the Cincinnati Bengals. He represents the most recent Berkeley alum to play for the shield. The Northern California public high school has helped generate nearly as many MLB players as NFL ones.

Its MLB roster includes Glenn Burke, who’s considered the first openly gay MLB player, as well as the co-inventor, with then-Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker, of the high-five celebration. 

Based in Canton, Ohio, the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the birthplace of the NFL (originally the American Professional Football Association), McKinley is well-situated to be a high-school football powerhouse.

More than 80 percent of the pro athletes that the public school has chipped in to the three major sports are NFL players. Percy Snow, Marion Motley and Wayne Fontes (pictured) are among them. Best known as the longtime head coach of the Detroit Lions, Fontes played one year in the AFL for the New York Titans, the organization that would become known as the New York Jets.  

Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is seen preparing to throw a pass in a 2020 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bridgewater, Amari Cooper, Antonio Bryant and Marvin Jones are among the NFLers who share a history with Northwestern. There are only three other institutions on this list that have produced more NFL talents than the Miami public school. 

De’Anthony Thomas (pictured) is one of Crenshaw’s more recent entries to the NFL. The Baltimore Ravens wide receiver, who opted out the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has logged six seasons to date, from 2014-2019. His fellow ex-Crenshaw Cougars in the NFL have included Brandon Mebane and Los Angeles Rams running back great Wendell Tyler. The Los Angeles public school has also helped produce the NBA’s Marques Johnson and the MLB’s Darryl Strawberry. 

Now the running backs coach at Purdue, Chris Barclay (pictured) started his football ride at Male. Barclay went from Male (which, despite its name, is co-ed) to Wake Forest to the NFL. His run in the pros was brief, but it was long enough to add to the school’s already considerable count of pro athletes. Other Male alums to make it to the NFL include Michael Bush and Chris Redman. 

Keyshawn Johnson is one of the brightest lights to emerge from Dorsey. Now an ESPN personality, Johnson lettered in football and track at the Los Angeles public school, and, after stops at community college and USC, went on to become the overall No. 1 pick of the 1996 NFL Draft. Jeremy Harris and Chris Matthews are two of Dorsey’s most recent NFL entries. The school also counts longtime San Francisco Giants outfielder and three-time MLB All-Star Chili Davis among its pro-athlete alums.

The Bosa family alone accounts for 5 percent of St. Thomas Aquinas’ bounty of NFL connections. The San Diego Chargers’ Joey Bosa (pictured) and the San Francisco 49ers’ Nick Bosa both attended the Florida private school.

They’re joined by dozens of other ex-St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders with NFL credentials, including Dallas Cowboys great Michael Irvin and Lamarcus Joyner. The very first St. Thomas Aquinas alum to make it to the NFL was Brian Piccolo, says Pro-Football-Reference.com. He’s the Chicago Bears running back whose friendship with Gale Sayers and battle against cancer would first be told on screen in the 1971 movie, “Brian’s Song.” 

This Los Angeles public school was also once a major pipeline to the MLB. Eric Davis, George Hendrick, Chet Lemon and Bob Watson (pictured) are among the big-leaguers to emerge from Fremont. In 1963, Watson helped lead the Pathfinders to a city baseball championship. His teammates included two other future MLB standouts, Willie Crawford and Bobby Tolan. Watson became a two-time All-Star for the Houston Astros, and later the team’s general manager -- the first Black general manager in MLB history. 

Compton’s pro-football roots run deep. Future NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle graduated from the Los Angeles-area public school in the 1940s. Datone Jones (pictured), of late with the Las Vegas Raiders, is the school’s most recent alum to suit up for the NFL.

Like other L.A.-area public high schools in this countdown, Compton was also a once-upon-a-time MLB heavyweight, producing the likes of Hall of Fame slugger Duke Snider and two-time All-Star outfielder Gary Ward.

This private boarding school has helped produce dozens of NFL and NBA athletes, including the Charlotte Hornets’ Terry Rozier (pictured), the Los Angeles Lakers’ Montrezl Harrell and former NBAers Marreese Speights and Josh Howard. Rozier’s story with Hargrave Military Academy helps explain, in part, why the school has accumulated so many pro-athlete alums: Rozier enrolled at Hargrave as a fifth-year senior in order to get his grades up for college entry. All the other schools in the countdown, save for one other, are four-year, high school programs. 

The overall No. 2 pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Washington Football Team’s Chase Young (pictured) is living up to the hype -- and to the lofty reputation of his high school. DeMatha has helped produce 50 NFL and NBA talents. In addition to Young, the Maryland private school’s NFL resume boasts Cameron Wake, Cyrus Kouandjio and brothers Brian Westbrook and Byron Westbrook. The school’s NBA products include Basketball Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, Kenny Carr, Quinn Cook and Markelle Fultz. 

There are football-player factories, and then there are football-player megafactories: Fork Union Military Academy is the latter. No U.S. high school has helped give rise to more NFL players than this private boarding school in Virginia.

Its 70-man-strong roster of alums includes current players such as the New Orleans Saints’ Michael Thomas and the Indianapolis Colts’ Anthony Castonzo. In his 20 years in the NFL, quarterback Vinny Testaverde (pictured), who attended the school as a fifth-year senior, saw NFL squads explode with fellow ex-Fork Union Blue Devils. Eighty percent of the school’s NFL alums debuted in the league after 1990. 

The No. 1 school on our list isn’t a private school, and it’s not a waystation for young adults looking to beef up their grades or bodies before heading to college. It’s a four-year public high school in Southern California -- and its talent for producing professional athletes is unreal.

“The only thing special about this place is the tradition and the kids,” a now-retired Long Beach Poly coach, Don Norford, told Sports Illustrated in 2005. “And the kids--they're more than a little special."