[6] Through a local essay contest run by The Ann Arbor News, the mascot nickname, the Pioneers, was chosen in 1936.

The new site, on West Stadium Blvd west of South Main Street, is directly southwest of the University of Michigan Football Stadium and had been used for game day parking, a tradition that continues under school district ownership.

Construction of the new Ann Arbor High School building started in 1953 and was completed in time for all classes to move the new location for the fall of 1956.

[10] As of October 2012[update], it held the record for being the longest continuously run planetarium in a school in the western hemisphere.

[12] Pioneer has won two MHSAA State Championships (in 1984 and 1987) and 43 league titles; they currently compete in the Southeastern Conference Red Division.

Historically, the Pioneers are one of top high school football programs in the state with 737 victories, second all-time behind Muskegon (as of the 2019 season).

Pioneer Theatre Guild has put on several popular productions including Les Misérables, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors, Romeo and Juliet, Hair, The Wizard of Oz, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Urinetown.

In both 2009 and 2010 Pioneer Theatre Guild placed second in the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association's theater competition.