Yuma Union High School - El Saguaro Yearbook (Yuma, AZ)

Page 15 text:

In l9l3 a Yuma team journeyed to Phoenix, scored our first football victory against the Coyotes and were called Criminals by irate Phoenicians. It was a fighting word with the Yuma boys then, but at the commencement of l9l7 the first commencement conducted by students on the old sand-lot athletic field, the Criminals officially adopted their present name. At a later date students prominent in extra-curricular activities formed a Warden's club: and when the sandy football field was paved, firm adobe from penitentiary walls was used. ln a sense the Criminals regained part of their early home. In l9l2, Interesting games of girls' basketball were played between freshmen, and upper classmen at the old Prison site. but the boys kicked the ball over the wall and it disappeared -perhaps into the untamed Colorado below. Illl

Page 14 text:

V5g,'E,,,f,.l irsr g - y... g A Q! , . 5, ' r , A K' K-J Athletic contests were confined to entrants within the high school. An early annual however, states that, one game of baseball with Imperial high school was played in lmperial by the boys. Association football was played on the hill in winter. A tennis association of thirty members was organized in November, l9l l, and tourn- aments were played against Bard Experiment Station and against Reclamation Headquar- ters. lt was during these years at the abandoned Territorial penitentiary that high school athletic teams, having no other popular name, were dubbed Criminals by opposing teams. E101

Page 16 text:

YUHS' ATHLETIC FIELD CENTERS