Yuma Union High School (often referred to simply as Yuma High)is the oldest standing high school in Yuma, Arizona. It was erected in 1909 and earned its mascot, the Criminal, after the school burned down and the students had to finish their classes in the Yuma Territorial Prison. The football team also went on to win the State title and the nickname was given by other schools, it stuck and was later officially adopted. YHS is the only school in A...
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Yuma Union High School (often referred to simply as Yuma High)is the oldest standing high school in Yuma, Arizona. It was erected in 1909 and earned its mascot, the Criminal, after the school burned down and the students had to finish their classes in the Yuma Territorial Prison. The football team also went on to win the State title and the nickname was given by other schools, it stuck and was later officially adopted. YHS is the only school in America that has a copyrighted high school mascot.
Yuma High School began in 1909- the Arizona Territory taxpayers voted to organize a union district from several elementary districts. In September of that year, Yuma High School began with four teachers in three rooms near the corner of Main and Third Streets. At the end of the first year, twelve seniors graduated.
The next year, 1910, the students moved to the newly abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison, where they remained for the next three years. Teachers conducted classes in the cellblock area...
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