The legacy of the Yuma Criminals began exactly 100 years ago, when Yuma (Ariz.) High School burned down one year after it had first been built. With nowhere else to go, classes resumed at the newly-abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison; yes, the same prison where they were trying to ship Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma. Since Yuma High had a championship football team then, jealous opponents took to calling them The Criminals, and eventually the name stuck. In fact, Yuma grew to like it, and it was officially adopted as the school nickname in 1917.
Today it’s the only copyrighted high school nickname in the U.S. The band is The Marching Criminals, the mascot wears prison stripes and resembles a winking Al Pacino, the mural in the gym looks like this, and the wrestling team has some very interesting warmup sweats. Also, the entrance gate to the football field is made from metal bars from their former prison home.
But the greatest thing here is the way the Yuma High football team enters the field on game nights. Just awesome.
Video following the jump.
