Jr. Red Devils and the History of the Springville High School

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Did you know that a few years ago, at Springville Jr. High we were once the Jr. Red Devils? That’s right! In this article you will learn when we changed the name and why we changed it back, who was here when we were the Jr. Devils and their favorite part about the mascot.

In 2001, the SJHS mascot was changed from the Knights, which what it is currently, to the Jr. Red Devils. Only a few teachers were here when this change was made, those teachers were Mr. Bentley, a geography teacher, Mr. Krebs a math teacher, and Mrs. Bales in the Finance Office. It all started when there was a push to have more unity between the High School and the Jr. High. Mr. Bentley explains that they left for summer break one year as the Knights and came back in Fall as a Red Devil.

However, once they opened Mapleton Jr. High in 2005, there was jealousy between schools. There was jealousy because there were kids who went to Mapleton Jr. High but then went to Springville High. These students didn’t get to be Devils in Jr. High like the kids who went to Springville Jr. High who were always Devils. Some students thought that this was unfair. So after Mapleton Junior opened, it was decided to change SJHS's mascot back to the Springville Knights. Mr. Bentley said he misses being the Jr. Devils because he loved jokingly saying to kids on the first day of school, “Welcome to hell, come study with the  Devil…” However Mr. Krebs said that he likes being the Knights because it gives us our own identity. Mr. Krebs said, “I like “Knights” because a Knight is someone to look up to and represents great ideals.”

Perhaps you're wondering how we even got our name Springville Red Devils in the first place. Well, in 1908, Springville High School was being built and a local concrete company was doing the concrete for the High School. This concrete company was Red Devil Concrete Co. Springville was grateful for their help so they voted in the name Red Devils for our mascot. The information on when they voted in the name is still not clear. To this day, you could find a concrete burlap sack in the new High School in a display case.

Now you may have realized that it said, “new High School” and you may have already know this, but the High School back then was not in the same place as it is today. The old High School was located right by the Art Museum- there were two buildings, a smaller square one and a long rectangle building, a track and football field sat right behind the High School where Cherry Creek Elementary is now today. But instead of this school being called Springville High School, it was called the Presbyterian school. The larger building was the High School and the smaller was the Jr. High. After a while both turned into the High School. The first graduating class at this old high school was in 1909; in the ‘new’ High School in the Library you can find yearbooks going back to 1913.

One of the gymnasiums for this old High School is still here to this day and it apart of Cherry Creek Elementary and it is used constantly by students and used for basketball games. When the old High School was still in use, there was a swimming pool located underneath the girls gym in the long rectangular building that was used by Springville citizens. A Seminary building was located right across the street from the school and was turned into a Family History Center; but if you look closely at the top of the building the words “Seminary” are engraved into the concrete. The last graduating class was in 1967. After that students would go to the new High School that is the building currently being used. The old High School was torn down sometime in the 1980’s.

If you would like to learn more, next time you are in the ‘new’ High School be sure to go to the library there and look at some of the yearbooks! You can see pictures of what the High School used to look like and if you are lucky, you can find a picture of one of your grandparents! 

Attributions
Article by Emma Biesinger