Ohio's last Superior bus

Superior was a manufacturer name commonly seen on school buses up until the early 80s.  Superior Body Company (later Superior Coach Company) began building buses, among other vehicles, as early as the 1920s.  Sheller-Globe acquired Superior in the late 60s.  On April 1, 1977, new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were rolled out for school buses, which increased manufacturing costs.  Add to that the fact that districts across the US were buying fewer buses and the fact that there were at least 5 other major manufacturers who were also building school buses, the company was faced with lower profits.  By 1980 or 1981, Sheller-Globe liquidated Superior buses.  Superior as we knew it was basically dead.  The name was revived by another company a few years later, but their buses were nothing like the classic Superiors.

School buses typically have a service life of somewhere around 15 years, but it wasn't uncommon for the older buses being in service for up to 20 years, even in Ohio's climate.  That all depends on quality and maintenance of the buses.

By about 2006, there were still 4 of these buses running around Ohio, owned by a district for the purpose of transporting school students (I am not counting buses owned by collectors or for non-school use).  Kenton Schools had two, Hubbard had one, and Apollo Career Center had one.

Then around 2009, Kenton City Schools retired a 1972 model (37 years old!).  Sometime in 2014, Hubbard Public Schools retired a 1976 (38 years old) and in early 2015, Kenton retired their other Superior, a 1980.  As of February 2015, there was one Superior left in Ohio operating as a school bus.

In September 2015, I got a text from one of my buddies:

"The 1976 IHC Superior in Lima has been retired"

That's it.  No more Superiors.  To be fair, 39 years was a good run.  Here's a look at Ohio's last Superior school bus with photos taken in 2009.

This bus had many of the features I remember on a few buses I rode to school.  When I started in the 1980s, my district still had a handful of Superiors around.  I miss the red-only warning lights that made the "tick-tock" sound as they flashed, along with Superior's fiber-optic light monitor.  It was somewhat crude, yet ahead of its time.  Another one of my favorite features of this bus is the BACKING sign.  They fell out of favor within the last 10-20 years due to maintenance and rust issues; many districts that had them opted to remove them altogether.

Let's step inside:

A couple of my other vintage bus memories include the stanchions rather than the commonly-seen barriers in front of the front seats, and the marble-style flooring (which might still be available, but very few operators get it):

(Superior info source: Wikipedia)