From the humble beginnings in 1909 of 4 teachers and 12 graduating seniors, Yuma High School has grown to be one of the top performing schools in the state of Arizona with nearly 3000 students in grades 9-12.  Yuma High School began three years before Arizona became a state. In 1909, the Arizona Territory taxpayers voted to organize a union district from several elementary districts. In September of that year, Yuma High School began with four teachers in three rooms near the corner of Main and Third Streets. At the end of the first year, twelve seniors graduated.

The next year, 1910, saw the school move to the newly abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison. For the next three years, the prison was to be the home of Yuma High School. Teachers conducted classes in the cellblock area and the school held assemblies in what had been the prison hospital.

City officials notified the school in 1912 that they needed the Prison as a city jail. The school board proposed and successfully carried through a bond election to build a new school. Thus, in 1913, school began in the newly constructed Main. That same year, the Yuma football team traveled to Phoenix to play the "Coyotes". Yuma High won. The angry "Coyotes" dubbed the Yuma High players the "Criminals".  At first "Criminals" was a fighting word. Before long, students and teachers wore the name with pride, and in 1917, the school board officially adopted the nickname. Yuma High School has been proudly called the home of the "Criminals" ever since.