 In 1913, Thornton was one of nine schools, and the only south suburban school, invited to found what became the Suburban League, which mostly consisted of schools like Thornton which had formerly been members of the Cook County High School League.In 1928, 16-year-old Betty Robinson (between her junior and senior years at the school) not only won the very first Olympic gold medal awarded to a woman in the 100 meters (at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam), but set a world record which stood for four years.During World War II, like many high schools, Thornton made changes to accommodate the war effort.