The City of Alice originated from the defunct community of Collins, which was located three miles east. Around 1880 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway attempted to build a line through Collins. The townspeople did not want to sell their land to the railroad company; consequently, the railroad site was moved three miles west, and in 1883 a depot called Bandana was established at its junction with the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Railway. Bandana soon became a thriving cattle-shipping point, and application for a post office was made under the name Kleberg in honor of Robert Justus Kleberg. The petition was denied because a town named Kleberg already appeared on the post office list, so residents then chose the name Alice, in honor of Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg, Kleberg's wife and the daughter of Richard King. The Alice post office opened for Business in 1888, and within a few years the remaining residents of Collins moved to Alice.
High school football has been part of Alice, Texas since 1905. The school's first official game was a 38-0 win over H.M. King High School (Kingsville, TX) in the year 1909. Since 1909 the Alice Coyotes have won 21 district titles, made 36 playoff appearances (18th all-time and 6th most in Class 4a history), and played in 4 Texas State semi-final games (1955(William Adams), 1979, 1998,and 1999). The Alice Coyote Football Team’s all-time record is 541-371-34.
Alice High School's rival is Henrietta M. King High School (Kingsville, TX). The first meeting between the teams was in 1909, and matchup is known as "The Brush County Shootout." The Alice Football team and their fans rode 20 miles in horse drawn buggies to Kingsville. Alice won the game 38-0. Since then, the two teams have played each other 81 times. Alice leads the series 43-35-3 as of 2010.
The Alice High School band was organized in 1933. In 1960, Bryce Taylor was hired on as Band Director in Alice. He spent the next fifty years as music supervisor and high school band Director for the Alice ISD. In his tenure, the Alice High School band earned 29 consecutive UIL Sweepstakes awards and placed in the top five TMEA Honor Band auditions for Class 5A twelve times. The Alice High School band was one of the first five schools to be awarded the Sudler Flag of Honor by John Philip Sousa Foundation and is listed on their national Roll of Honor for high school bands in existence between 1960 and 1980. The band is now under the direction of Arnold Garza who himself was a student of Bryce Taylor.
The Pride of South Texas by Buddy Travis (1986)
Alice High School has an award-winning theatre department with a strong reputation in the educational theatre community. For the first two decades, the AHS drama program was under the direction of Don Howell. Well respected around the state for his theatre expertise, he was able to take the UIL One Act Play team to state competition on several occasions. After retirement Mr. Howell went on to work for the U.I.L. One Act Play office located at the University of Texas and to adjudicate for UIL. Following his retirement in 1993, Darleen Totten took over and has continued to promote outstanding theatre at Alice High School. Under her direction the students received the National Forensic League Leading Chapter award and performed at Thespian State and the International Thespian Festival on numerous occasions. In the fall of 2006, the Alice High School Theatre Department received international attention when their thespian troop appeared in Dramatics Magazine and Ms. Totten was interviewed for a story in Stage Directions Magazine
Alice Academic Decathlon is the most successful program at the high school under the tutelage of coach Dr. Joseph Eberhard. While the individual results in the 10 different topics examined in the competition are too numerous to mention, Alice High School has won the Regional Championship in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Medium School Division Texas Super Quiz State Champions in 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015. In the Medium School Division, Alice High School has finished as high as 2nd Overall State Team (2015). In 2011, Alice High School won the National Title in the Medium School Division. Students on the teams have gone on to graduate from Harvard University, Yale University, Duke University, Stanford University, Fordham University, Rice University, Dartmouth College, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas-Austin, and Texas A&M.
In 2007, AHS Thespian troupe 5191 was chosen to perform The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds at Lincoln, Nebraska, for the International Thespian Festival. The students were given a standing ovation by thousands of drama students from around the world. They were also invited to bring Crimes of the Heart for the Chapter select performance the following year. The play was directed by a student, Sylvia Gonzalez. They did not perform because one of the cast members had emergency surgery just before the trip to Nebraska. Darleen Totten also led Alice High School Drama club on an outstanding UIL OAP journey in 2011, with their production of Turandot which was also presented at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. This performance has been featured on the EdTA website. Clips of the AHS production of Turandot are used in promotional videos for Thespians created by EdTA. In January 2014, they were invited to perform She Kills Monsters at the Alabama State Thespian Festival. Pictures of their trip to Alabama were shared by the Samuel French publishing company.
The 2014-2015 season has the Coyotes playing in conference 30-5A along with Calallen High School, Flour Bluff High School, Victoria East High School, Victoria West High School, Foy H. Moody High School, Tuloso-Midway High School, Roy Miller High School, and Gregory-Portland High School.
