History In July 1956, Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Henry M. Gunn called a meeting of local school superintendents that led to the creation of Foothill College. Calvin Flint, then President of Monterey Peninsula College, was hired as the first District Superintendent and President; he started work on March 1, 1958.

Candidates for the new college's name, besides Foothill, were Peninsula, Junipero Serra, Mid-Peninsula, Earl Warren, Herbert Hoover, North Santa Clara, Altos, Valley, Skyline, Highland, and Intercity. At first the name was Foothill Junior College, but because Flint insisted that his new college would be "not junior to anyone", the Board dropped the "Junior" in September 1958.

The campus was designed by architect Ernest Kump and landscape architects Hideo Sas

The community college district's headquarters are located in one corner of the Foothill campus. The district also administers De Anza College in nearby Cupertino.

The college has several divisions: Business & Social Sciences Counseling & Student Services Fine Arts & Communication Health Sciences & Horticulture Instructional Services & Libraries Language Arts & Ethnic Studies Kinesiology & Athletics Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics

Athletics Foothill is a member of the Coast Conference of the California Community College Commission on Athletics and NorCal Football Conference. The school mascot is an owl. The Los Altos Hills campus has a track and field that is open to the public.

Intercollegiate teams Football Men's and women's basketball Men's and women's soccer Men's an

Five Foothill professors have won the Hayward Award of the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, given each year to a faculty member who has a "track record of excellence in both teaching and professional activities". Foothill's winners include Jay Manley, Mike McHargue, Elizabeth Barkley, Andrew Fraknoi, and Scott Lankford. In addition, Frank Cascarano and David Marasco are Fellows of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Foothill College's Physics Show, started in 2007 by physics professors Frank Cascarano and David Marasco on the model of The Wonders of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is one of the largest popular physics presentations in the US, with an annual audience of more than 25,000, with a total attendance of nearly 250,000. Proceeds fro

]] Adrienne Barbeau, actress in the TV series Maude, and former wife of the film director John Carpenter Rudy Arroyo, Major League Baseball player Rick Bladt, Major League Baseball player Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles Paul Bravo, professional soccer player, coach and executive Chrisann Brennan, American artist and author of The Bite in the Apple, mother of Steve Jobs first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the author of Small Fry Mike Brewer, Major League Baseball player Tony Brewer, Major League Baseball player Kirill Dmitriev, Russian investment banker Dan Duran, Major League Baseball player Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Brad Gilbert, All American tennis player at Foothill, former pro player ranked as high as #4, and coach to Andre Agassi Kevin Gutie