Stephen Decatur High School (Decatur, Illinois)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Stephen Decatur High School" Decatur, Illinois – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Stephen Decatur High School (orig. Decatur High School)
Location
Decatur, Illinois, US
Coordinates	39°50′43″N 88°57′08″W / 39.8452°N 88.9523°W / 39.8452; -88.9523
Information
Type	Public High School
School district	Decatur Public Schools District 61
Color(s)	Red and White
Team name	Reds (until 1945) Running Reds (after 1945 state basketball championship)
Newspaper	The Observer
Yearbook	The Decanois

Stephen Decatur High School was a public high school in Decatur, Illinois, United States, which existed from 1862 to 2000. Stephen Decatur High School was simply known as Decatur High School until 1957, when the city's only high school was joined by Lakeview High School (a small rural district absorbed by consolidation), and MacArthur and Eisenhower High Schools, which were newly constructed to accommodate the student population that was exploding as a result of the post-World War 2 "baby boom".

The school, like the city, was named after Stephen Decatur, Jr. one of the great naval heroes of the post-Revolutionary War era. He battled pirates off the Barbary coast of Africa (twice), fought in the War of 1812, and at 25, is still the youngest person ever to achieve the rank of captain in the history of the U.S. Navy. He eventually attained the rank of commodore (a flag officer rank roughly equivalent to rear admiral) but was killed in a duel with a fellow naval officer.