In 1969, when court orders forced integration, the all-Black E. E. Butler High School was closed and its students rezoned to GHS.

They received the name in the 1920s when the well-known writer Grantland Rice decided to watch the final game of the undefeated 1925 Gainesville Red Elephants football team.

Rice quipped "The team is coming on the field looking like a herd of "Red Elephants as the ground shakes beneath their feet".

The Red Elephants football team won the State Championship in 2012 with Deshaun Watson (Current Cleveland Browns QB) leading the way.

Gainesville High School claims one of the most successful boys' golf programs in Georgia history.