[2] As defined by the Texas Legislature, the official service area of AC includes all of Carson, Castro, Deaf Smith, Moore, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, and Swisher Counties.

George Ordway and James Guleke helped to introduce a house bill that would establish junior college districts in the Amarillo area.

Throughout the first half of the 1940s Amarillo College's Defense School and other classes trained for wartime building efforts.

In 1942 the President of the college, Dr. Mead, was commissioned to the Army and forced to take a leave of absence to help in the war.

[7] As part of the revived sports program, the school mascot got a makeover, a new costume, and was renamed Ace the Badger.

[10] It was later replaced by a branch of Palace Coffee in 2018,[11] which in turn was taken over by the school and merged with the student bookstore in a renovated College Union Building in 2020.

[13] The West Campus is a 42-acre lot located near Amarillo's hospital district that officially opened its doors in 1967 in response to growing demand for allied health and occupational technology programs.

In 1996, the old Amarillo High School gymnasium was transformed into Business & Industry Center which houses an auditorium, an exhibit hall and classrooms for seminars, short courses and computer training.

The campus is also sparsely developed, consisting of old buildings from the TSTC days (which itself were donated when Amarillo Air Force Base closed) and a residential community called Highland Park Village (consisting of old military housing duplexes, from which the nearby school district takes its name), currently managed by the college.

The college opened a sixth campus in Hereford, the seat of Deaf Smith County, on August 29, 2005.

KPAN AM&FM radio broadcaster Clint Formby raised $89,000 in scholarships for student attending the Hereford campus.