DID YOU KNOW OR DO YOU REMEMBER THAT……………?
• The dirt field between 2nd Street and 3rd Street on Dunlap was called “Twenty Acres”.
• Before the SHS football field was ready, the first football team practiced at “Twenty Acres”.
• For the first two years the basketball team had to practice at Glendale High School.
• The basketball team won the school’s first trophy at a city-wide tournament.
• The first pep rally was held in September, 1953 on Dunlap from Central to 7th Street.
• The first school dance was a student mixer and admission was 25 cents per couple or 15 cents stag. About 300 students attended the event.
• The starting line-up for the first football game against Mesa included the following boys: Mark Connor –RT, Richard Kelly-RG, Bob Gray-C, Bert Maloy-LG, Bob Gibbens-LT, David King-LE, Jay Rigsby-QB, John Elekes-LH, Ronnie Martin-RH, Jim Purcell-FB, John Sadler.
• The girls that were chosen as the Cheerleaders for the 1953-1954 season were: Flo Hull, Zona Keen, Jeanne Beard, Gail Abbott, Robert Hansen, and Jack Dalmaso.
• The first Pom-Pom girls that were chosen were: Patsy Heser, Mary Oesterreicher, Dianne Thompson, Joetta Myrick and Marilyn Mitchell. The girls designed and made their own blue and white uniforms.
• Thirty acres of land were purchased at the corner of Central Avenue and Dunlap Road for $45,000 and with an estimated cost of $396,538. to build the school. The total cost was actually $600,000.
• The 1954 yearbook went on sale, October 12, 1953. The price for each volume was $3.00 with one-half of the price paid in advance.
• A vote on school colors was held during the first school election and the colors scarlet and silver and blue and white tied. A run-off vote was held and the colors Scarlet and Silver were chosen.
• Mr. Arens gave Spanish Dance lessons after school in the auditorium on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. There was no charge.
• The SHS Band gave their first half-time show on November 11, 1953 at the game between SHS and South Mountain High School. The first majorettes were Judy Byers, Judy Chamberlain, and Barbara Carpenter.
• The first “Sweetheart Ball”, a semi-formal dance, was held in January, 1955. The admission price was $1.25 per couple or 75 cents stag. Highlights of the event were the crowning of the King and Queen, great dance music and much fun.
• Mr. Coor resigned from the faculty of SHS in 1955 to return to his alma mater in the Avondale-Litchfield Park district as their Superintendent. In his interview with the “Viking Views” he stated that “I feel that Sunnyslope has gained a reputation and school spirit that always will be envied by other schools.”
• From the November 1, 1955 edition of the “Viking Views”, “The student council decided on the date of November 8th each year to be the day of the annual painting of the “S” (on the mountain) by the freshman class as their initiation.”
Calling all Sunnyslope High School Alumni! If you have a photo or two you would like to share on this webpage from your Viking days please email the SHS at info@sunnyslopehistoricalsociety.org.