The school's athletic teams were originally known as "Chili Peppers", reflecting the dominant local crop of the time.

GGHS was badly damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake; the main classroom building suffered a partial collapse and one student was killed.

It also houses the Argonaut Hall of Fame and Museum, chronicling the school's long history, as well as a memorial to Michael Monsoor, a United States Navy SEAL killed in Iraq and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and an alumnus of Garden Grove High School.

[4] In September 2021, Garden Grove High School celebrated 100 years of establishment.

Wrestler, Nathan Tran, made the California State Tournament for Wrestling in Bakersfield, in 2018, for the first time since the 1990s.