Sam Rayburn High School

Sam Rayburn High School is a public high school located in Pasadena, Texas in the United States. The school is a part of the Pasadena Independent School District.HistoryThe school opened in 1964 and was expanded and renovated in the early 2000s. It is named after Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, a Texas native and member of Texas House of Representatives and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives who served for 17 years. When Rayburn opened, its principal was Carter Lomax. Its first Head Coach for football was James O'Neil. In 2011 voters in PISD approved of a bond, which includes building a new competitive gymnasium for Rayburn, set to open in September 2013.MascotSam Rayburn's mascot is the Texan. Some Rayburnites eventually adopted Yosemite Sam from Warner Brothers Looney Tunes as the school's informal mascot. In 2007 PISD received warnings that if it didn't discontinue the use of Yosemite Sam as Sam Rayburn's mascot, the interested party would file copyright infringement charges in a court of law. PISD then forced Sam Rayburn to change its mascot. Yosemite Sam had been Rayburn's mascot for over 43 years.AthleticsWith American football being the primary sport for domestic attention in the school, the other sports at Sam Rayburn have seen great success, with baseball being the only sport so far to win a UIL state championship. Most recently, in 2014 the boys soccer program earned Rayburn their first district title in at least a decade. In 2012, the school was warned by the National Football League to halt usage of the Texan logo for all sports teams, as well as for the school to advertise. The school has since mostly complied by changing all logos to a unique design emphasizing the school name and nickname. Sam Rayburn is classified as 5A for UIL sports (6A for basketball & football), as the student population is expected to eclipse 3,000 for the 2014-15 school year. Texans sports include: