Stamford High School is a high school, founded in 1873, in Stamford, Connecticut. It is one of three public high schools in the Stamford Public Schools district, along with Westhill High School and Academy of Information Technology and Engineering (AITE).

History

thumb|right|250px|Postcard from about 1910 of the school building on Forest Street

In 1878 the Stamford Town Committee decided to create a high school for the growing community after deciding there was the lack of sufficient secondary education. They created Stamford High School the following year in a single rented room. Students attending SHS starting in 1874 had one teacher who taught reading, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, history, and philosophy. Drawing, Latin, Greek, physical geography, and geometry were added to the curriculum in 1876.

The new addition was part of $59 million in upgrades for the school begun in 1997, including replacing four boilers, new roofs and expanding the school cafeteria by . Increasing enrollment in the city school system spurred the upgrades, and Westhill High School also received them. These include football, boys' and girls' soccer, boys' and girls' cross country, cheerleading, volleyball, girls' swimming, and field hockey in the fall; boys' and girls' basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, boys' and girls' indoor track, cheerleading, and boys' swimming in the winter; and baseball, softball, boys' and girls' tennis, boys' and girls' track, boys' and girls' lacrosse, and golf in the spring.

Traditions

Each year on December 7, a 9-by-17-foot American flag that flew over the USS Arizona Memorial is to be flown from the flagpole in front of the school as part of a memorial ceremony for Pearl Harbor Day. Everett Hyland, an alumnus of the school who was wounded in the attack, donated the flag in 2007 on condition that it be raised each year on that date. At the first ceremony, in 2007, a small group of veterans attended, some of them speaking to the school's students about the event. "It's one thing to read a book that 2,400 people died," Doug MacLehose, head of the school's history department, told a newspaper reporter. "Talking to someone who was there or can remember is very powerful."

Notable people

Alumni

  • Craig Bingham, football player for Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers
  • Garry Cobb, football player for Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions
  • Bob Crane, actor, radio personality, star of Hogan's Heroes
  • Michael Dante, actor
  • Tony DiPreta, comic book and comic strip artist
  • Vladimir Ducasse, football player for the New York Jets
  • Fred Dugan, football player for San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins
  • Devin Gaines, attracted international media attention by earning five bachelor's degrees simultaneously
  • Ina Garten, cook, author, and host of the Barefoot Contessa
  • Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead
  • Jimmy Ienner, music producer
  • J. Walter Kennedy, Stamford mayor and first commissioner of National Basketball Association
  • Joseph Lieberman, United States Senator, former vice presidential candidate
  • Candace Owens, conservative commentator.
  • Andy Robustelli, football player for the New York Giants