The school, which was named for former superintendent L. Frazer Banks, occupied six buildings in a residential area of Birmingham's South East Lake neighborhood.
The school's athletic teams in that 1960-61 season won the Birmingham city football, basketball and baseball championships.
In the early part of that decade, a U. S. Air Force F-86D/L "Sabre", tail number 52-4243, was acquired when it was taken off active service.
In 1972 and 1973, Coach Shorty White led the Banks Jets to consecutive 4A state football championships.
In the fall of 2007, after the school's closure, the state of Alabama agreed to turn over the landmark jet, which was actually still owned by the USAF, to the Southern Museum of Flight, where it will be restored to its original Maine Air National Guard active military color scheme for display.