1903
2021
History of Compton High
Compton Union High School opened on September 7, 1896, in two rooms of the Compton City Grammar School building located at Wilmington near Main Street. The first graduating class consisted of two students in 1898. In 1903, CUHS moved to its original high school building on the corner of Myrrh and Acacia, and the Masonic Lodge laid the cornerstone for the new high school Administration building. The original CUHS colors were red and white; the mascot, the Lion; the school newspaper, The Lion's Roar; and the school annual was named The Red and White until 1917, when the name was changed to Spectrum.
In 1927, the Compton Community College District was established as a component of the Compton Union High School District. In the fall of 1930, the high school adopted the college colors (Maroon and Gray), the mascot (the Tartar), and the high school annual merged with the college annual, Dar-U-Gar. The Underclassmen’s mascot evolved into Baby Tartars, Tartar Babes, Babes, and the Tarbabes. In 2000, the mascot was briefly changed to Tartar-Lions; however, Tarbabes has remained the dominant mascot name. (The Underclassmen athletes were referred to as "Tarbabes" in the 1939 Dar-U-Gar yearbook for the first time.)
