Yuma High School (YHS) was founded in 1909, three years before AZ became a state, starting with four teachers and twelve graduating seniors. In 1910 the school moved to the abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison. Class was taught in the cell block area and assemblies were held in the prison hospital. Today the YHS gift shop has long been dubbed 'The Cell Block'.

In 1912 Yuma city officials needed to re-acquire the YHS property and re-purpose it into a prison, then the next year YHS relocated. That same year the YHS football team travelled to Phoenix to play the Coyotes, the local high school's team. YHS won and the Coyotes irately called them 'criminals'. Though 'criminal' is most usually a fighting epithet, the YHS administration, teachers and students wore it like a badge of honor. In 1917 the district officially adopted 'criminals' as nickname and mascot, which is status quo today. The most notable alum is the recently deceased Curley Culp (1946-2021), best known as one of the starting defensive linemen for the Super Bowl IV champion Kansas City Chiefs (1969 season, 1970 calendar year).

Yuma is the seat of its eponymous county, AZ's southwest-most, thus its southern border touches Mexico, more particularly the states Sonora and Baja California. Yuma the city per se is on the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers; the latter is the full natural border between AZ and CA. Google Maps average drive time from Yuma to Phoenix is 2 hours and 45 minutes.

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